Council of despair

The biggest mistake we humans make is bothering to get up in the morning. The world would be a much better place if we all died and there was no more humanity to pollute this planet. If we want to "save the planet" as everyone seems to be on about at the moment, the best way to do it is for us all to commit mass suicide. When I stop and look around me at the way people conduct their lives I despair. I also acknowledge that I am far from perfect myself. Take the floods the country is suffering from at the moment. We find people afraid to leave their flooded homes for fear of looters. We find people actually vandalizing water bowsers. These people should all be shot on sight. They are nothing but rodents, except for one thing - they give rodents a bad name.

If you go on holiday, you have to go through a load of extra security at the airport because of religion obsessed nutters who want to blow you into a thousand pieces. We have gangs of idiotic youths wearing hoods when it isn't even cold going around beating people up. We have a predominance of one particular group who think it good to carry guns and use them on each other. The list of evils is endless. If you have a happy contented life you are very lucky and probably oblivious to the crap that is going on around you.

If you look around the world and see the atrocities people inflict upon one another - all for, in their own minds, very good and laudable reasons. People are starving in Zimbabwe and North Korea while their leaders get fat. People are murdered because they change from one religion to another, while others are murdered in "honour killings" - almost always women.

Mankind is not made in the image of god because, clearly, there is no god. If he were, then god would be self evidently evil. Mankind is to this planet what a weeping sore is to a leper's back. So lets all do the best thing we can to save the planet from any more of this rubbish, and lets all just drop dead! I'll follow you......

Common Sense

I got this sent to me in an email today. I don't know where it originated from, and I must assume there are no copyright issues. Anyway, its so very, very true and is a sad reflection on the state we have got ourselves into. Come the revolution.......................

For those of you who may have missed this announcement in your local newspaper...
Obituary of the late Mr. Common Sense Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and Maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Calpol, sun lotion or a band-aid to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 3 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Film Review - Children of Men

Last night I watched "Children of Men" on DVD, not that the mode of viewing makes any particular difference. I'm not going to go into the detail of the story as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. However, the main premise of the film is that all of a sudden, all women, all over the world suddenly became infertile and unable to have babies. In the film its 18 years (or was it 17 - never mind - whats a year between friends?) and society all over the world has caved in on itself and disintegrated. There are gangs of ravaging morons roaming the streets, terrorism an everyday thing for just about everyone, and illegal immigrants are fair game and rounded up by the "authorities" and put into cages for deportation or whatever.

Now - I have a problem with all this. OK, crime, racism, terrorism and the like is of course a big problem in the world and society alike, but what I cannot understand is why on earth a lack of babies should exacerbate the problem to such extremes. The film also seems to miss out on the fact that if everything really was as bad as this then there wouldn't be many people around anyway as there would be no food getting to the supermarkets, no work would be done, no basic necessities of life available, the upshot being that everyone would either die of starvation, lack of medical attention, or just murdered in the street. This is a very dark and disturbing film, but my main criticism is that the scenario is just untenable and has not been properly thought through. However, I am not saying this is entirely a bad film. Films are by their very nature escapist and cinematically I found it quite entertaining (and dark). There is a lot of very clever filming where the camera stays on the subject with continuous action going on for several minutes without any cut to another camera. There is also a quite amazing piece of filming where the camera is in a car with the subjects while it is moving along and being attacked by marauding hordes outside. The camera view moves from the front of the car to the back, moving around to all sorts of seemingly impossible viewing angles. There is a bonus section on the DVD which shows how this and other parts of the film were achieved, and makes very interesting viewing in itself. I give Children of Men three out of ten for plot, and seven out of ten for entertainment value.

The Justice of God

I have just been away on holiday walking the 95 miles of the West Highland Way. While staying at the Travel Inn at Fort William, I had a read of the inevitable Gideon's Bible. I noted from Deuteronomy that if a husband is unhappy with his wife and she is found NOT to be a virgin when they married, then she is to be taken to the gate of the city and stoned to death. Of course, there is no such punishment- or any punishment at all for that matter - for the man who took her virginity. What a kind, fair and just god this is who puts these laws into the hearts of the sons of men! I was reading a while ago that a woman was stoned to death for some sexual "crime" in Nigeria after being found guilty under Islamic Shariah law. This is a very caring and humane kind of execution where the victim (almost always a woman) is buried in the ground up to the neck so that all the stones are hurled directly at her head. In fact, Islam as practiced in Iran, Nigeria and anywhere else the fanatics get their way is almost identical to ancient Judaism. If you care to read in the Old Testament about all the god-given laws (not JUST the 10 Commandments) you will see that they are not only evil, but favour men and victimise women. This is always the way with religion. It was invented and formulated by men for men to exercise power over women. That is why you only see men worshipping in Mosques and women did not worship in the Jewish temple either. In Christian churches it is the tradition for women to wear hats in church. This goes back to the apostle Paul's ruling that women should have their heads covered during worship. This was to signify that the husband is the head of the wife. The man, of course, does not wear a hat or covering because this signifies that Christ (God) is the head of the man! Notice the pecking order????? Oh, and just for good measure, Paul forbade that women should have authority over men. There's a surprise! And this is only the tip of the iceberg...........

Fundamentals

Religious extremists are often referred to as fundamentalists. Now please forgive me if I am wrong, but I always thought that a fundamentalist was one who attached himself to the fundamentals of a particular belief. Now the fundamentals of a belief are the bedrock, core beliefs on which the religion as a whole is founded. So, a fundamentalist Christian will believe in original sin and so will believe that the story of the fall of man in the garden of Eden is factually true. This means that everything else in the Bible is true, otherwise the core beliefs upon which the sacrifice of Christ depends fall apart and you are left with a watered down faith which means little or nothing at all. Because it is all true, then it must all be incorporated into one's life and the way one interprets the world. Therefore, evolution cannot be true because the Bible clearly states that the Earth was created by God in 6 days and rested on the seventh, in the year 4004 BC (as calculated from scripture by Bishop Ussher). This gives fundamentalists the god given right to pour scorn upon the findings of modern scientific research which has a tendency to disagree with the creationist view - unless the evidence is there to support it. Fundamentalists don't need evidence to believe anything; they don't need it because they have the word of god, (even though the word of god is different from one faith to another - they can't all be right) so it is perfectly correct for them to try and foist their unreasonable and unreasoning beliefs upon anyone who doesn't see things the way they do. They have god on their side, so they cannot possibly be wrong. So, apart from denying children access to scientific truth, they also condemn gays, women who have had an abortion, etc etc. Catholic dogma denies people the right to contraceptives while poor overcrowded Catholics live in disease ridden squalor in South America and other outposts around the world. There are far too many people in the world, but because all human life is utterly sacred (according to religious dogma), the population is set to keep growing exponentially - that's if the Catholics get their way. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Leaving aside Christianity and looking elsewhere, we have religious fundamentalists thinking its OK to fly crowded passenger jets into crowded skyscrapers, carry out suicide bombings in crowded restaurants frequented by young people, blow up Mosques and people while they are in the peaceful act of worship. The list is endless - and terrifying. The problem is this - if adherence to the fundamentals of a faith causes people to find justification in committing such atrocities, what does this tell you about the religion itself? Think on.....

Smoked out

Thank goodness the smoking ban is almost upon us. This is the best bit of legislation we've had in this country for ages. As you may have guessed, I don't smoke. That has not always been the case. However, as an ex and now non-smoker, I find smoking more repulsive than ever. My mother was a heavy smoker. She stopped several years ago because if she'd carried on it would have killed her. She can hardly breathe now. Just getting up from a chair makes her more out of breath than I get after running several miles. My father-in-law was a heavy smoker. He died of lung cancer in a follow-through from throat cancer. As an ex-smoker, I know how compulsive and addictive it can be. Because of this, I cannot blame people who find it hard to give up, although in my own case I managed to stop by simply not buying any more. Society is very contradictory in its approach to smoking. I walked into my local Tesco's today to see prominently displayed on the counter packs of giving up smoking kits - which was good. The only trouble was that cigarettes were being sold from the shelves behind. So what's your message Tesco's? - do you want people to stop or not!! Seems a bit like the Salvation Army selling beer to me. I travel to Scotland two or three times a year. Since they've had the smoking ban, going into a busy pub has been a much more pleasurable experience, to say nothing of not leaving with my clothes stinking of smoke any more. I have a bee in my bonnet about people who smoke in cars. I find it utterly ridiculous that I could be fined for eating an apple or taking a drink while I am driving, but it is perfectly OK to drive around with a red hot tipped tube in your hand venting smoke all over the car. If you accidentally drop it you could easily have a panic situation and loose control of the car, let alone the distraction of lighting up while you are supposed to be concentrating on your driving. The law is an ass! Another concern is the increase in the number of butts we are likley to find littering our streets as everyone who wants to smoke will have to go outside. Of course, they won't use the bins. Smokers don't because they don't see dropping a tab end on the street and stepping on it as littering - which, of course, it is. I hate litter. I love Singapore, however. My wife and I had a holiday in Singapore three years ago. It was so clean. There were very strict anti littering laws as well as anti smoking laws (not to mention anti-chewing gum laws!) which were all rigorously enforced. Harsh punishment awaits anyone who litters or smokes in the wrong place in Singapore. This country, by comparison, is a filthy tip and it makes me sick. We need much tougher laws and more rigorous law enforcement to purify our society. I am sick of politically correct do-gooders who think we should treat everyone with kid gloves and try and understand the criminals. What the criminals need to understand is that we as a society have had enough and want to see these scum bags locked up for a term which means what it says - no early release. Perhaps its also time we brought back the death penalty, especially where terrorism is concerned. There - see what you've done! I started talking about smoking and ended up with the death sentence. Come to think of it, aren't smokers sentencing themselves to death anyway???

Hunger pangs

I'm feeling hungry, and its coming up to lunch time. The problem I'm having is deciding what to eat. If I go straight home, (I'm on a work break at ther moment) I'll probably end up having beans on toast with a couple of poached eggs on top. On the other hand, my body is screaming at me to go by the chip shop and have large cod and chips - oink, oink! My wife thinks I am a pig - or at least thats what she tells me. I've got a slightly podgy belly. I say slightly because of the enormous man - mountains I see walking about - and I am NOTHING like that. In fact, unless you saw me in my underpants (which you ain't going to) you might not even suspect I had a podgy belly - the outer apparel hides it well. Even so, I am concerned about my weight, body morphology and diet. However, everything in moderation seems a good get out clause. But hang on - everything in moderation - does that include heroin or bing drinking? Can you be a moderate bing drinker? Gosh, life is complicated. Of course, another worry is that I might have my fish and chips and then tonight my wife will decide we should have fish and chips for tea, and then its not in moderation any more. To make matters worse, she'll probably ask me what I had for lunch, and me not being able to tell a lie will have to tell her. Then we won't be able to have fish and chips because I've already been a pig and had it! I think I can see the direction I am heading. Beans on toast with two poached eggs it is!!