Friday, April 19, 2013
Salute of the Jugger
Damaged but alive - and still alive at the end! Gar. The name is the same as the sound I would make if we did the dirty dance together, methinks.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
A Question...
...for the US Senators who think their loyalty should be to the gun lobby rather than their constituents.
As a mere UK citizen, I watch a lot of US cop shows, and when a school is featured, there always seem to be security guards employed there.
We don't have that over here. So tell me, please, how do you work it out that YOU are the guardians of freedom in this world, when even your kids need protecting from the guns you love by such a huge curtailment of their freedom in what should be the safest place for them?
We had a school gun massacre once, nearly as bad as Newtown. Just once. We immediately restricted gun ownership even further, and made sure all target weapons were locked up in gun clubs. There were few complaints, and none of our elected representatives was against the changes. No one lost a freedom that was truly valued.
You people are the dregs of the world. Protect ALL your citizens, not just those who make guns or those who love to shoot. You aren't living in the wild west any more. Reject the bribery of the gun manufacturers and be men (I guess most of you are male) by standing up for what's right.
As a mere UK citizen, I watch a lot of US cop shows, and when a school is featured, there always seem to be security guards employed there.
We don't have that over here. So tell me, please, how do you work it out that YOU are the guardians of freedom in this world, when even your kids need protecting from the guns you love by such a huge curtailment of their freedom in what should be the safest place for them?
We had a school gun massacre once, nearly as bad as Newtown. Just once. We immediately restricted gun ownership even further, and made sure all target weapons were locked up in gun clubs. There were few complaints, and none of our elected representatives was against the changes. No one lost a freedom that was truly valued.
You people are the dregs of the world. Protect ALL your citizens, not just those who make guns or those who love to shoot. You aren't living in the wild west any more. Reject the bribery of the gun manufacturers and be men (I guess most of you are male) by standing up for what's right.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
A Tale of Two PMs
One Prime Minister built up post-war Britain as a home for heroes. The other dismantled as much as she could so as to enrich the rich still further.
Which one deserved a ceremonial funeral? Not the one who got it.
Clement Attlee oversaw the creation of the welfare state and nationalisation of public utilities and some industries.
Thanks to him, Britain prospered. We had publicly owned companies to give us water, electricity and gas, to provide our bus and rail services, to produce steel and build ships, and to dig up coal.
Margaret Thatcher took his legacy apart, giving the profits from OUR services and giving them to shareholders rather than ploughing them back into those services. Now her acolyte Cameron is trying to finish the job that she started by destroying our greatest treasure, the National Health Service.
Attlee wold not have come across well in the TV age. He was not a great orator. He was not a larger-than-life character like Churchill, with whom he served as Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government. There was a contemporary joke that an empty cab pulled up and Mr Attlee got out.
He was later created an Earl, and his title continues, just, though his grandson, at 57, is still childless. The title will therefore die - just as well, because this treacherous man is a Conservative in the House of Lords.
I would be so proud to have such a distinguished ancestor. John Attlee, hang your head in shame. Think of the good you could have done if you'd followed your in illustious grandfather's footsteps.
Which one deserved a ceremonial funeral? Not the one who got it.
Clement Attlee oversaw the creation of the welfare state and nationalisation of public utilities and some industries.
Thanks to him, Britain prospered. We had publicly owned companies to give us water, electricity and gas, to provide our bus and rail services, to produce steel and build ships, and to dig up coal.
Margaret Thatcher took his legacy apart, giving the profits from OUR services and giving them to shareholders rather than ploughing them back into those services. Now her acolyte Cameron is trying to finish the job that she started by destroying our greatest treasure, the National Health Service.
Attlee wold not have come across well in the TV age. He was not a great orator. He was not a larger-than-life character like Churchill, with whom he served as Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government. There was a contemporary joke that an empty cab pulled up and Mr Attlee got out.
He was later created an Earl, and his title continues, just, though his grandson, at 57, is still childless. The title will therefore die - just as well, because this treacherous man is a Conservative in the House of Lords.
I would be so proud to have such a distinguished ancestor. John Attlee, hang your head in shame. Think of the good you could have done if you'd followed your in illustious grandfather's footsteps.
The Salton Sea
The completely unprepossessing Pooh Bear.
Yet somehow cute, and all because of his portrayer.
Yet somehow cute, and all because of his portrayer.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Looking for Love
This is Mjukuu.
She is the female gorilla who was deprived of her baby by David Field, a London Zoo hotshot, husband of a bigwig for an endangered species organisation and so not liable to sanction. He decided to send a new male, not the baby's father, in with the mother and baby just as littl'un was getting independent. The baby was killed. The breeding age females in the group would not get another opportunity to breed as the male was known to be infertile.
Finally, after months of delays, the infertile male having been removed last year, a new male has finally joined the group. His name is Kumbuku. He arrived at the zoo on Thursday and is not yet mixing with the girls.
But Mjukuu and Effie were deperately trying to get into the inside enclosure with him. They tried everything just to get a glimpse. Old Zaire was not interested.
Here's the boy they can't wait to get flirtatious with:
Blurred but obviously very handsome. He wowed the humans with some really butch displays. Then he set about dismantling the climbing wall.
Clever boy.
She is the female gorilla who was deprived of her baby by David Field, a London Zoo hotshot, husband of a bigwig for an endangered species organisation and so not liable to sanction. He decided to send a new male, not the baby's father, in with the mother and baby just as littl'un was getting independent. The baby was killed. The breeding age females in the group would not get another opportunity to breed as the male was known to be infertile.
Finally, after months of delays, the infertile male having been removed last year, a new male has finally joined the group. His name is Kumbuku. He arrived at the zoo on Thursday and is not yet mixing with the girls.
But Mjukuu and Effie were deperately trying to get into the inside enclosure with him. They tried everything just to get a glimpse. Old Zaire was not interested.
Here's the boy they can't wait to get flirtatious with:
Blurred but obviously very handsome. He wowed the humans with some really butch displays. Then he set about dismantling the climbing wall.
Clever boy.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
How much???!!
The loathsome author of the privatisation of all our publicly owned utilities; she who sold off all our assets, such as North Sea oil and gas and gave away our heritage and inheritance so that private individuals could profit from the ordinary people; she who destroyed British manufacturing industry and gave power to the finance industry (we all know where that led); she who has a rich family, including a gun-running son who has somehow obtained a knighthood, and ultra-wealthy friends; in these days of austerity where many have to resort to food banks and support for the disabled is being slashed; her funeral is to cost £10,000,000.
Her family may chip in. But why those she impoverished should have to pay for her obsequies, while those she enriched just get to go along and enjoy what the plebs pay for, I fail to understand.
All in this together, Mr Cameron? Yes, all bearing the expense of the witch's last rites. But the rich continue to bear nothing at all except the agonies of having to watch the protests of the anti-Thatcherites being squashed by a police force that, being itself hacked to pieces by the government, should be facilitating these protests, not putting them down.
Meanwhile, a campaign to get this number to the top of the charts has been successful, but "out of respect" for the person who never earned any respect in her lifetime, and deserves none in death, the radio chart programmes have been urged not to play it.
Her family may chip in. But why those she impoverished should have to pay for her obsequies, while those she enriched just get to go along and enjoy what the plebs pay for, I fail to understand.
All in this together, Mr Cameron? Yes, all bearing the expense of the witch's last rites. But the rich continue to bear nothing at all except the agonies of having to watch the protests of the anti-Thatcherites being squashed by a police force that, being itself hacked to pieces by the government, should be facilitating these protests, not putting them down.
Meanwhile, a campaign to get this number to the top of the charts has been successful, but "out of respect" for the person who never earned any respect in her lifetime, and deserves none in death, the radio chart programmes have been urged not to play it.