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.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Men Never Learn
In the supermarket today I saw an elderly man with two boxes of cat food pouches under his arm, and an empty pouch in his hand, which he was scrutinising. The boxes he held were from this range, at two boxes for £6:
I love cats. I like to be helpful. So I asked him if he was trying to identify the box the pouch might have come from. He was. He obviously had strict instructions from someone as to which pouches to buy. "Did a neighbour ask you?" I said, "Or a friend?" No, he said, his wife. I looked at the pouch and identified it as being from this range, at two boxes for £7:
I pointed out where the boxes were that contained the food his wife had asked for. He hesitated. He pointed at a similar box, which was the same brand but for senior cats aged 7+. I asked him how old his cats were. He said 3 or 4. So I redirected him back to the food he needed. He kept hold of the Whiskas boxes. No matter what I said, he kept repeating that he thought he was going to buy those.
I did try to warn him that he was going to be in trouble with his wife if he didn't take home the right food. Still he dithered. I went on with my shopping.
Five minutes later, he was still dithering in front of the cat food.
I don't know which he finally bought, but I can imagine his wife's reaction if he went home with the Whiskas.
I love cats. I like to be helpful. So I asked him if he was trying to identify the box the pouch might have come from. He was. He obviously had strict instructions from someone as to which pouches to buy. "Did a neighbour ask you?" I said, "Or a friend?" No, he said, his wife. I looked at the pouch and identified it as being from this range, at two boxes for £7:
I pointed out where the boxes were that contained the food his wife had asked for. He hesitated. He pointed at a similar box, which was the same brand but for senior cats aged 7+. I asked him how old his cats were. He said 3 or 4. So I redirected him back to the food he needed. He kept hold of the Whiskas boxes. No matter what I said, he kept repeating that he thought he was going to buy those.
I did try to warn him that he was going to be in trouble with his wife if he didn't take home the right food. Still he dithered. I went on with my shopping.
Five minutes later, he was still dithering in front of the cat food.
I don't know which he finally bought, but I can imagine his wife's reaction if he went home with the Whiskas.
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Mystic Pizza
Ah, beautiful Bill. Anyone here doesn't wish they were giving him that particular pleasure?
Monday, April 08, 2013
Hooray!
Just heard Thatcher's dead! Evil old bitch. I doubt we'll ever recover from the damage she did to this country, which her darling Cameron is determined to complete.
If there's a heaven and a hell, I've NO doubt which one she'll be in.
If there's a heaven and a hell, I've NO doubt which one she'll be in.
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Ruby Anniversary
Wow! Today marks my 40th wedding anniversary!
Sadly the divorce was seven years later, three years after the break-up.
One day I might scan in a few wedding photos. Or I might not.
We remained friends for years. I even went to his second wedding, and was invited to his third. But I don't think it took place, 'cos in 2000 he failed to return some calls, and I left him a message telling him to piss off. Maybe he was heartbroken by the split from Number 3, or maybe he was ashamed. Or too self-absorbed.
I think I might still be getting Christmas cards from him, but as I know a couple of guys called John with similar scrawl, I can't be sure. Nor do I really care.
Sadly the divorce was seven years later, three years after the break-up.
One day I might scan in a few wedding photos. Or I might not.
We remained friends for years. I even went to his second wedding, and was invited to his third. But I don't think it took place, 'cos in 2000 he failed to return some calls, and I left him a message telling him to piss off. Maybe he was heartbroken by the split from Number 3, or maybe he was ashamed. Or too self-absorbed.
I think I might still be getting Christmas cards from him, but as I know a couple of guys called John with similar scrawl, I can't be sure. Nor do I really care.
Saturday, April 06, 2013
Evil Personified
I don't know if news of our latest native-born monsters has reached foreign shores. Here they are:
Michael "Mick" Philpott and his wife Mairead had six of his seventeen children living with them in a three bedroom house. His mistress, who had also shared the house with them along with the five children she had borne him, had left, and he wanted the children back.
He obviously thought he needed something big to help him along, as he was already facing a road rage charge, and he cooked up the idea of seting fire to the house and heroically rescuing the kids, blaming the fire on the mistress. He was helped by his wife and his best friend.
The fire got out of hand and the six children died.
The couple did the requisite crying on camera in an appeal for witnesses to come forward. But the police were not fooled, and this week the evil man and his wicked puppets were sent to jail for manslaughter. Sadly not murder, as there was no intent to kill.
Now I understand why man-slaughter can also be read as mans-laughter. In 15 years this monster may again see the light of day.
Unless some Good Samaritan regular murderer bumps him off in prison...
Michael "Mick" Philpott and his wife Mairead had six of his seventeen children living with them in a three bedroom house. His mistress, who had also shared the house with them along with the five children she had borne him, had left, and he wanted the children back.
He obviously thought he needed something big to help him along, as he was already facing a road rage charge, and he cooked up the idea of seting fire to the house and heroically rescuing the kids, blaming the fire on the mistress. He was helped by his wife and his best friend.
The fire got out of hand and the six children died.
The couple did the requisite crying on camera in an appeal for witnesses to come forward. But the police were not fooled, and this week the evil man and his wicked puppets were sent to jail for manslaughter. Sadly not murder, as there was no intent to kill.
Now I understand why man-slaughter can also be read as mans-laughter. In 15 years this monster may again see the light of day.
Unless some Good Samaritan regular murderer bumps him off in prison...
Friday, April 05, 2013
Thursday, April 04, 2013
Great Oaks
We all know great oaks from little acorns grow. But not every oak is as great as it pretends to be - or as great as oganisations like Government, spending our money, would have us believe.
About 10 years ago I worked with someone who used to go out with a guy who sold his supply teaching agency for a million quid. That agency was called Capstan. The new owners reinvented it as Capita.
About 10 years ago I worked with someone who used to go out with a guy who sold his supply teaching agency for a million quid. That agency was called Capstan. The new owners reinvented it as Capita.
By the time I got my early teacher's retirement pension Capita had taken on the contract to run Teacher's Pensions. Their first attempt to assess the pension to which I was entitled was about half the amount they'd told me just a year or so earlier. No one knew how the cock-up occurred.
A couple of years later I ordered some Christmas cards fom the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. I ordered them early, but they didn't arrive. I phoned up several times, and received a different excuse each time. Sometimes they were in the warehouse, some time later they were just about to arrive there. I had to buy other cards to send to my friends and relatives across the Pond, and the charity lost the money I tried to spend with them. The company they had chosen to perform the simple task of filling orders was...Capita.
When I was made redundant (the same time as receiving my early pension) I signed up with the nearest supply teaching agency - the former Capstan, renamed Capita. They contacted me once with one day's work. A couple of years on I was doing some work in a school where they phoned up about another supply teacher they had sent there (they made no effort to check they were talking to the right person) and that is when I discovered that this person was sent by them from the other side of London every day, while I, a local, never had a sniff of work from them.
The latest fiasco concerns, of all things, providing interpreters for court cases. Last time I was on jury service, we had an interpreter for the defendant. The judge watched her closely and decided she was not translating enough of what was going on to the accused, so next day she had been replaced. Last year the job of supplying interpreters went to Capita. News today says they consistently fail to provide people, to the extent that some cases cannot be heard.
I don't really know what it takes for a company to stop gaining contracts, and to start losing the ones they have. I think Capita should be the test case.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
JFK
It may have been an atrocious thing to witness, but Bill Newman did have one bit of luck - being portrayed by Vincent.
Monday, April 01, 2013
It Don't Pay To Be An Honest Citizen
And it doesn't please me that I don't know this character's name.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
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