Gollum

On the way to work I was listening to an item on the radio concerning Wayne Rooney and his wayward love life. John Humphries was quoting a newspaper headline which called Rooney a love-rat. Humphries commented that there must be a by-law dictating that Rooney had to be called a love-rat in any press story.

I was under the impression it was de rigueur to call him Gollum.

Hang On!

Unions in the UK are calling for strike action and mass protests over the planned budget cuts.

Hang on; didn’t the Conservative government get voted in just 5 months ago on the platform that the massive budget deficit had to be reduced immediately?

The Last Squeeze

Remember those wonderful toothpaste tubes or yore, the ones you rolled up and probably contained voluminous quantities of hideously toxic base metals? Wonderful, weren’t they? You could squeeze out every last smear of toothpaste.


These new plastic jobbies spring back into shape the instant you let go of them, resulting is good 5 minute wrestle to get the last drop out the next time you use them.

Progress?

Symbology & Intolerance

An Imam, responsible for a planned Islamic community centre at Ground Zero, refuses to reconsider the location, knowing full well that its very location is grossly insensitive to the feelings of a large number of Americans who lost relatives in an atrocity committed in the name of Islam. The man is an insensitive idiot.

A little-known, so-called Pastor with a flock of less than 50 is threatening to burn Islamic sacred texts if the planned Islamic center is not relocated to somewhere other than Ground Zero. I would not call this man a Christian, but a charlatan and a blackmailer to boot.

Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Moslems in Afghanistan and Pakistan are, as a result, calling for all Christians to be killed. I would not call these people Muslims, but bloodthirsty savages who can’t tell the difference between a real Christian and a demagogue. However, sometimes I can’t tell the difference either.

The media elevates this so-called Pastor to the position where he is front-page news. Without the breath of the media, this Pastor would remain unknown and the lives already lost in this argument (at least 3 thus far) would have been saved. Are the actions of a single nutcase newsworthy? Debatable!

This whole thing revolves around symbology and intolerance – the symbols of Ground Zero and the Qur’an and the intolerance of religious fundamentalism.

All in all, an unholy mess – or a holy mess, depending on your point of view. I’m just glad I’m totally devoid of religion. My symbols and intolerances are secular.

I Am The Stig

Extracts from Tony Blair’s autobiography would suggest that he, and not Ben Collins, was The Stig.


I am The Stig (your turn).

Boy Shed & House

Apparently there’s a north / south divide in the UK concerning problem drinking; People in the north drink a lot and the people in the south think it’s a problem.

Well, the Boy Shed is finished and he moved in at the weekend. He adores it! Bedroom, den and shed combined, with easy access to the caravan through the window at the back, which is hermetically bonded to one of the caravan's windows (glass removed).




The house is coming on a treat too, but it does somewhat resemble HMP Maze.

The Old Sodbury Village Day Photographic Competition

Nice, ain't it?


I won 3rd place with the following composition at the Old Sodbury Village Day photographic competition. It wasn't really my choice for an entry, but Hay persuaded me.


I'd have preferred this one, which was strikingly similar to the winning entry, which was a summer image of the same scene:

Beyond Belief - All in the Mind

On my way home yesterday afternoon, as is customary, I was listening to the radio. The programme I was listening to was 'Beyond Belief', which is concerned with faith and ethics.

The subject under discussion was Catholicism and I was astounded to hear one of the interviewees state that (among other things) Catholics should become less concerned with introspection and more concerned with the Truth.

Given the large number of religions, each professing to be custodians of Truth, these Truths can by definition be no more than opinions – and widely differing opinions to boot.

The only Truth can be that which is indisputable – i.e. scientific truth derived from observation, experimentation and verifiability through repeatability.

I think 'Beyond Belief' should be renamed 'All in the Mind', the name of another BBC Radio 4 programme.

Welcome to the Jungle - Late

The buggers have only gone and done it again!

Not happy with turning up late at Reading and Leeds, GNR turned up an hour late at Dublin.

Separated at Birth

Another 'Separated at Birth' observation.

I was watching some of the highlights of the Reading Festival and spotted Axl Rose doing a fair attempt at some 'dad dancing'. He's starting to look alarmingly like Mickey Rourke and very un-cool.

Rose (left) and Rourke (right)