“I’m 36! I’m 36 Tom Baker!”
I thought I’d have a browse of some blogs from Republicans since the US election.
Some are quite sanguine. Others are, well shall we say, a little rattled. When rattled they become angry and so on (see Star Wars the New Shite for full details).
Have fun.
Oh and since I’ve not really talked about the election at all I’ll let this guy do it.
I’ve just read one of the most cogent and satisfying arguments ever.
There’s a long letter in the local newspaper from the head of the local secular society. He’s talking about dialogue between the faiths and those of no faith. All very sensible.
But someone’s left the single finest comment ever on their website.
“To deny something you are actualy acknowledging that the thing exists in the first place. “
Therefore I would like this man to deny the existance of his 2nd and 3rd heads. The act of denying it surely must acknowledge that they exist.
Random sweary epithet re this fool.
At the risk of boring the pants of you any more I just must witter briefly about the major news story of the week.
It seems that 2 idiots on the radio said some stupid things on their radio show.
And this is the single biggest news item of the week.
First off, they’re idiots.
Second off, there should be no second part.
That should have been it. 2 people complained on the night. The presenters apologised to the “victim” and the guy sweetly has accepted the apology and wants the story to go away.
But no it isn’t going away. And why?
Apparently people are offended. People who would never in their lives listen to one of these radio shows. Ever.
I think the only proper offended people are the recipient of the message and his granddaughter (who incidentally seems to be rather easily offendable for a goth porn model).
So why all the hooha?
Is it real offence on the part of the media? Err no.
Is it grandstanding to try and demonstrate who’s most moral? No.
What it seems like now is yet another bandwagon jumping onto something that takes the mind off the shitter news that seems to be doing the rounds re recession etc… But I’m not even sure that’s what has led the media flurry of ludicrous over-reaction.
What concerns me is that the anti-beeb forces have got a nice new stick to beat the BBC with. There is a sizeable bunch of idiots people who seem to think that the BBC would be better if it had to have adverts, telly shows as crappy as ITVs and radio of the quality of local independent stations. For these people the licence fee is just another tax (technically it is I suppose). The fact of a tax over-rides any thought that there’s one hell of a benefit to having the BBC as it is. Namely that it’s a shed load better than any other broadcaster.
BBC4 is astonishingly good at times. 3 can be flushed away but 1 and 2 remain as good as ever. And radio 4 is untouchable re intelligent programming.
For some people the thought that they have to pay all the time means that they should be able to watch or listen to any programme and a: not be offended by it; and b: enjoy it.
So many things are wrong with that attitude. By that measure I want to see horror fillums and drama that shows the reality of life with kids TV involving swearing, underage sex, drugs and mindless violence. It offends me that we have to sanitise what goes out over the airwaves. Where’s my rebate and stick to whack the DG with?
Do these people seriously think that a non-public BBC will offend less? I think Channel 4 gives the lie to that idea. So what do they do next? Censorship? Yet more restrictions in the guise of “protecting the public”?
For the record I think that’s rubbish. The real point is this:
The tories had a spokesman on the radio yesterday insisting with a straight face that the DG should resign over this.
This concerns me as the tories have always had a faction that wants to get the BBC privatised. You’d think that the fact that every other privatisation has failed spectacularly (apart from maybe BT) doesn’t seem to deter them.
They’ll likely make the next government too. So are the days of a decent BBC on the wane? Let’s hope not.
And just to repeat. Brand and Ross are dicks but this reaction is ridiculous. There is actual news happening in the world. Can we hear about that instead please?
Well the industrialised bit of it anyway.
I’ve not done a lot of stuff about world news in recent months. This is mainly because it’s all a bit samey.
The US believes it can do what it wants and so has a go and wastes billions of dollars whilst killing untold numbers of civilians and plenty of their own soldiers for no good reason.
Russia believes that waving its wang around will convince everyone that it’s to be respected. This is the same version of respect that spacky gangster wannabees hanker after. Note: that’s not respect, not by a long way.
The militant muslims still think that they’re right despite all available evidence. They still keep killing people during Ramadan despite them whinging that when the US bomb muslims during Ramadan it shows “no respect for Islam”.
The UK population still feel that it’s the government’s role to help us through difficulties despite voting against this sort of government for just about every election since 1946.
Etc etc etc. Basically the world’s full of shit because people are paranoid, stupid, greedy. Nothing changes apart from our ability to destroy and cause problems gets ever greater.
But this news of the US financial crisis is most entertaining.
The president puts up a plan; it’s debated and then his own party stick the boot in and defeat it for him He must be very proud. Well actually I suppose he’s not clever enough to realise what’s actually happening so he’s happy whatever.
The main problem seems to be that the bankers make fortunes during good times but the tax payer is being asked to help them out of a hole during this bad time.
So a perfect opportunity to get something in place that pays us during the good times. Sure give the greedy money grubbers some of our cash but insist that they actually do something in return.
Get them to offer a service again at the very least. In recent years the banks have become simple sales businesses. That’s not right.
Or go further and nationalise a few of them. But then run them as banks, don’t wind them down and sack everyone. That would just do no good.
Imagine the picture if private banks had to compete with government backed banks - plenty of good deals I would expect.
Or even better. Chase the greedy bastards who made so much from us over the years. Make them pay the bloody billions they’ve leached from us. Chop nads off those who won’t pay. Scum.
But is this really going to affect us that much?
It seems so. Today 10% of available mortgage deals were taken off the shelves. A 75% mortgage last year is probably now nearer 90% and so will be more expensive to remortgage.
I’m so pleased I’ve got a good job; one that I can carry on for ages. The english teaching might come in useful one day too.
I’m told it will be a bumpy ride. Have fun.
A couple of great things in the local paper today.
First was a comment on their website about their story of a huge new shopping centre opening in Leicester yeterday.
The Highcroft shopping centre is all I have ever dreamed of. The credit crunch is resigned to history with the opening of what will surely put Leicester along side London, New York, Paris & Bangor in the world of fashion. My only disappointment is that Leicester’s greatest ever celebrity, Mr Willie Thorne, was not there to conduct the opening…shame on you Highcroft.
Marvellous. I thought at first it was a proper comment; then I got to “Bangor”.
The next bit was a letter printed in it today.
It was about the “Creationism vs evolution” “debate”.
Some choice picks:
In Psalms 14 and 53 God says: “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.”
Ah so that’s the not at all circular logic ploy. “The book that says there’s a god, says there’s a god therefore there is a god”.
I prepared the ingredient for a cake. There was a big bang and, hey presto! the ingredients came together, and lo and behold, there was a cake! Really?
Argument from ignorance. “I can’t understand this therefore I don’t believe it.”
This is just not true. It’s an oft repeated story but apparently his daughter was at his bedside when he died and she later stated that he did no such thing. So there’s an argument from fallacy.
I’m sure this guy’s god will be very pleased that he has managed to not only fail to understand a damn thing about the topic but that he has also broken one of the god’s own 10 commandments (Do not bear false witness). I seem to remember the commandments being quite important for believers to follow. Nicely done that idiot.
Oh but look, his piece de resistance:
I love that he’s not religious but still can’t see the irony in the rest of his sentence here. Imbecile or weirdo?
Have fun.
There are plenty of occasions where I and many others make a quick shorthand reference to “Daily Mail readers” and we mean it to mean “unthinking, bigoted, numpty” or some such. Likewise you also hear “Guardianista” meaning “wet, loony, lefty”.
A news story came up a day or so ago which was demonstrative in why I feel that the Mail is a poor publication only concerned with feeding its readers’ prejudices.
One such prejudice is that the government can do no right. This can also be extended to “none of the government’s agencies can do right”. I work for one such agency, the NHS.
There was a good news story for the NHS. You can read the basic story here. I know that the link is to the BBC, that well known liberal, pro-government (how the hell can anyone believe that bollocks I’ll never know - I can’t remember a single pro-government story in the past few months at all) etc etc.. But the story reports the feeling of the RCS - the people who did the study. Good news - the NHS does something very well.
The Mail’s headline for the same story?
“New hip and knee replacements may wear out in just three years”
Same study, same detail in the story, rather different take on the headlne. And when you remember that most people don’t really read beyond the headline and first paragraph or so then it gives a totally misleading impression of what the story actually says.
And they say I’m biased.
(actually I suppose they don’t).
I’m watching the Olympics closing ceremony at the mo. It’s all very pretty and that.
But the Beeb commentators are wittering just as much about London in 4 years and what the “legacy” of these games are.
How about “letting us see all these other sports”? You know stuff like archery, cycling, swimmiing, rowing and more.
I know that there are some competitions shown but they’re few and far between and you get bugger all of the backgrounds to the competitors or any detail about what is involved in the training and preparation, who are the favourites and why. Etc etc…
Give us some stuff about water polo, Greco-Roman wrestling and that. People will hate lots of it but the more people inspired to get active in any form of sport the better. And the BBC is the perfect vehicle for opening up the world of sport to us Brits. Show us new stuff, inspire people and some of it will be entertaining.
When I was a kid I wanted to do gymnastics. Couldn’t at my school as it was a “girl’s sport” (as stated by my PE teacher). So I had to spend my PE lessons standing in the cold whilst people played football (or rarely, rugby) around me. So I ended up this unhealthy, sport phobic lump you see today.
Now if I’d had some gymnastic training back then maybe I’d be fitter and more active now.
I’m not a great one for competition but I do like watching sports (some of them anyway).
Get to it Beeb - 4 years of getting us aware of all the weird and wonderful sports that are in the games should provide a cheap and entertaining thread of programmes. I’ll be watching.
[edit: Oh my word Boris Johnson is there and he may have to speak. Everyone else is immaculate, he's upper class shabby and has amazing legs (valgus deformity it looks like). Oh my word indeed he gets to wave a flag around and a fiver that he drops it.]
It’s the time of year for GCSE results again.
Which means it’s time for the annual “exams are getting easier” argument.
Are they?
From what I’ve seen…maybe.
It may not be that exams are getting easier but I heard something yesterday that convinced me that they’re easier to pass.
Radio 1 did a thing where some of their presenters did the hardest version of the GCSE maths paper.
Oh and quell surprise. The results were startlingly shit.
All of them except 1 failed. They even had their percentages read out (although I could guess that none of them actually know what a percentage is), 7%, 11% and one even managed the feat of getting “nil”. Now to manage this last would have involved not understanding enough to write your name in the “name” box on the paper.
And oh how they laughed. “Well done us we are so dim, ah but we’re friendly so that’s alright”.
Fucking imbeciles! Let’s just celebrate the fact that we have a nation of thick as pig shit people doing well shall we? Fucking hell.
The worst of it was the woman who “passed”. She got a grade C. With 26% correct.
What the fuck! 26% is a pass nowadays? For christ’s sake what the hell is going on here?
No bloody wonder that new uni students don’t have a clue, uni courses are adding more and more “remedial years” to their courses, new employees can’t write an understandable letter, and nurses struggle to figure out that if an EMG chart goes at 60 squares a minute through the machine then 1 square takes 1second.
Oh my word.
Send me a bloody paper. I haven’t done maths at that level for 21 years but I seriously doubt I’d struggle to make an A* grade considering the pathetic easiness of the sample questions in the papers this morning.
And stop fucking celebrating the fact that you’re shit at things. It doesn’t help.
I had noticed. And it was mentioned to me yesterday.
My blog has been more than a tad quiet this week.
A combination of business and not being in the mood I suppose.
But then there’s stuff to look forward to.
EJC is nigh on upon us. Really looking forward to that. At least I am assuming my keeping fingers crossed re car surviving works. I’m half expecting me to be spending a day sorting car issues during the holiday. But hopefully I’m just being paranoid.
Other stuff.
The Bugle remains the funniest thing I’ve heard for a while. Certainly much better than the current Now Show series. In fact radio 4 comedy is a bit rubbish now. ISIHAC is finished what with Humph dying, Now Show is a bit rubbish at the mo, Just a Min has worn out its welcome to me as well. It doesn’t leave much else there.
My brother hit 40 this week. It’s the first time he has celebrated a birthday that I remember my dad celebrating way back when. I am now starting to feel old. No do though so he had to make do with a card. I’ll take him booze next time I visit.
Work is interesting but summer always makes the world of work more fun.
I’ve had about 4 no shows today. I’d be paranoid if I’d seen them before but they were all new patients. Annoying but its occasionally nice to chill a bit on warm days.
There’s too much on in the news for me to get to all of it. Although I do wonder what the hell Weston Super Mare has about it to warrant nearly lead item on the news today. Nice to see that a damaged pier takes precidence over murder on honeymoon, 50 people killed in suicide bombings in Iraq, a dozen more in Turkey etc… Our editors must all go to the school of mundanity. V poor.
Have fun.