Big Brother controversy
Not worth wasting much space on so I will put my post here:
Guardian today Article about racism
Can someone please explain why this media generated storm in a teacup has occupied major news for the last week?
What is this 'Celebrity' that these people are supposed to demonstrate, and does anybody actually watch the programme?
It really is beyond me that we can be so manipulated by the media.
Shilpa Shetty is an actress I understand. She can act.
Jade Goody has been involved in this programme before and understands what the producers want.
Failing ratings mean that controversy is needed to increase viewing figures.
Do we need to be duped by this?
Yes, racism exists
yes, there are people who do not wish to get to know strangers
yes, people are stupid
yes, people bully others
yes, people are intolerant of difference.
that is life.
Without education and example human nature will continue in its defensive mode.
Media hype generates increased fear in our increasingly fearful society. It's a con. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Blair's leaving date
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2160076.ece
Blair scuppers Brown's hopes of an early handover
By Andrew Grice
Published: 17 January 2007
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Rubbish!
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I will post this now as a record of what I have been saying for ages.
Blair is not planning to leave the leadership of the Labour Party before the next election.
Remember, he is a Barrister. His use of language is explicit. What he said to the last TUC Conference was that he would not be attending another TUC Conference. At no point did he say that he would be resigning before the next conference. He will go on, and on. No matter what Brown thought he had agreed years ago, Blair will not relinquish power.
He will find excuse after excuse, or create situations which make it impossible for him to hand over power. The public will be sooo grateful: "Thank you Tony for offering to save us from the horrors we now perceive"
All hail the eternal leader.
latest cause of fear/alarm: dangerous dogs
google search today shows 1,487 news stories on this topic
http://news.google.co.uk/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=dangerous%20dogs
Obviously another forgotten fear we should worry about.
NEWSPEAK today
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1977460,00.html
"This indignation deficit shows the reality of the state that Labour is in
They may grumble to pollsters, but financial security and high public spending will keep the public voting Brown "
Polly Toynbee
Those of us who protested in the 60's and 70's felt we were achieving something. After the biggest demonstration in the world failed to stop madness some of us retreated to try and survive. We have not given up, but the growing sense of hopelessness at not being listened to means that fewer now feel they have any part to play in any of this.
Protect and survive may become our motto. Heads down folks, keep breathing and hope for a quick end.
Here we go....be afraid, be very afraid.
For the full article see Food for Thought page
THEY ALL HAVE NUMBER PLATES AND THE OWNERS OF 1.5 MILLION CARS ARE GOING TO BE STOPPED "In the ANPR system we at present have one-and-a-half million car registrations which we'll have to check because we know something is wrong with them." - police director H. Karreman explained. The police explained that for instance also 'suspects' which had not shown up yet for a DNA test were stopped, and people who had tax debts, had not paid parking tickets or were ordered to pay alimony but didn't. They could stop stolen or 'suspected' cars, like all other cars and the people in them, which data are kept on file in the police's database with (legal and illegal) info on all 16.5 million inhabitants of The Netherlands. And even if 99% of them is innocent and has (on paper) constitutional rights which by law forbids this kind of snooping, the European Union's 'managers' and their control system keeps mutating as some form of malignant fungus in all twenty-six countries.
"IF YOU KEEP'M STUPID, I'LL KEEP'M POOR." With 11% suffering poverty in Holland, in one of the 'richest' countries on earth? With children held in jail and fourhundred-and-forty-thousand children growing up in abject poverty? Is that a 'rich' country where more so called middle class people than ever commit suicide for economical reasons, and 61% of the people lies awake because they do not know how to pay the bills...? Also in Holland , the digital TV camera gets the license plate, 'freezes' the picture and 'matches' within a second. And if the authorities, the by you tax paid personal, via the by you tax paid police wants you for whatever reason, even for reading this, two by you tax paid cops on by your taxes paid motorbikes will have stopped you within minutes. If needed, and by remote control of course, all traffic lights can switch to red, and the road signs and markers above and along the highway will show your license plate number, telling you to STOP! That's what also can happen to all and anybody of those people with cell phones and/or new, for the EU compulsory driving licenses with build in signals via the RFID's.
THEY PROMISED FREEDOM AND IMPOSED APARTHEID What's happening in Holland is happening in the rest of the European Union too, and slowly - like cancer mostly - it's silently spreading across the globe. To silence oppositional voices and further brainwash the people, globally more major media have been bought, and under the cover of the US junta's fake 'war of terror' the indecent and abusive control of people keeps metastasizing.
"IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR." IS THE GLOBAL NITWIT MANTRA. Well: after a few people survived the maltreatment in the US concentration camp Guantanamo, survived the years of illegal jailing, the hunger strikes, brutal interrogations with torture and having some poor people commit suicide in desperation, a few got out and could finally tell their horrible stories. Giving evidence that all of them 'had nothing to hide'. But the US mercenaries tortured them anyhow. 50.000 Volt will make you 'confess' anything.*
Why do you think it can't happen to you?
Henk Ruyssenaars
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/gpr4j
The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl
More to worry about
Is it better to be a bit fat or very thin? The news about obesity makes me want to eat, drink and be merry
Alexander Chancellor Friday December 15, 2006 The Guardian
08:34 AM
Yippee! one more thing for us all to worry about - 'Internal fat'
Shall we start a book on what the next one will be?
Motto for life
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - strawberries in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming - WOO HOO! What a Ride
posting at guardian comment
Routine and systematic torture is at the heart of America's war on terror
In the fight against cruelty, barbarism and extremism, America has embraced the very evils it claims to confrontGeorge Monbiot
Tuesday December 12, 2006
The Guardian
After thousands of years of practice, you might have imagined that every possible means of inflicting pain had already been devised. But you should never underestimate the human capacity for invention. United States interrogators, we now discover, have found a new way of destroying a human being.
December 12, 2006 07:26 AM
I have long been ashamed to be a member of the human race. Glad to know others are waking up to it.
It seems that there is little we can do about it given the Bushblair rampage. 'Stand up and be counted' is admirable, but ineffective against the promoters of terror. Now terror is being promulgated into the general public as well as those unfortunate enough to have been 'lifted'. John Reid promises us another 'terror' attack at Christmas. I have a vision of Tony and John at the Christmas Concert merrily singing 'All I want for Christmas is a terrorist attack..' a la Dora Bryan!
'He who seeks to terrify others is more in fear himself' John Clarke,1639 Seems to describe Bushblair to me.
Jenni Russell on Education
The exam-driven, results-focused system is failing too many children
New Labour's approach to education exposes our society's lack of interest in those who will never be high achievers
December 12, 2006 08:05 AM
Nice article but not just 'special needs' children who are being failed, surely every child is special. The Government is quite clear what it expects from the 'education' system, and it is not Education. As long as boxes are ticked and 'factory fodder' rolls out, barely numerate and literate but able to obey authority and do what it is told, the function is fulfilled. Unfortunately ther are fewer 'factories' these days, hence the muddle. Producing citizens who are caring of others, capable of reasoned thought and able to question is NOT what they are about.
Polly Toynbee on tory thoughts
December 12, 2006 08:50 AM
Polly, I agree more with you this time than usual but cannot forgive
" Most [of the poor] are in work, doing essential jobs that society depends on, yet still not earning enough to keep a family. Labour finds that hard to discuss but at least (my emphasis) it brought in a minimum wage and tax credits to fill the gap"
When will Labour recognise that the 'Minimum Wage' is not a living wage? Low wages and part time, short term contract working are the cause of the problems.
Most of the jobs advertised round here are less than full time and no-one can live a full time life on part time wages. Doing two or three part time jobs leads to ill health and stress related disease. People cannot plan for their futures when their contract is for a limited time, and insecurity rampant.
Blame single parents, blame mothers, blame who you like, but until a government is strong enough to stand up to employers nothing will change.
Home on the web
I am so pleased to have found a net community where I feel at home.
The Grapevine is just the place for me. Focussing on Grow your own, allotment holding wine makers who love cooking, I feel a definite affinity. Now all I need to do is find extra hours in the day to check out the posts. Have already contributed a Christmas recipe and posted the following in a thread about saving the planet.
Didn't realise I felt so strongly hopeless about it.
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"Save the Planet"
It really came home to me last year when New Orleans went down, We are totally dependent on oil-based systems - water, electricity, sewage, as well as 'next day' delivery to supermarkets. When the system crashes we are all screwed.
After that I got an allotment and found out where the nearest well was (we live near the river, so may be able to get water). Its too late I know, but I've given up using the car, grow as much as possible, brew my own wine, and generally am trying to keep my head down. Watch out for Monsanto and F1 hybrids too, otherwise you won't be able to propagate your own crops.
Global warming may have some advantages - we could grow olive trees and get oil from our own plots, melons and peaches will be easier to grow too. I really need some bees for honey, and may research that.
Meanwhile, do what you will, but harm none other.
more madness
8th December 2006
Latest News headlines:
'Mad Chicken Poisoning' is now a cause for concern.
Following Bird Flu last year, we've had Polonium poisoning, quickly followed by a report today that we should all be terrified again of Mad Cow Disease.
Isn't Thatcher dead yet?
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What else shall we worry about?
Headline yesterday in Leicester Mercury, Loughborough Edition: 'Not enough CCTV cameras in the town'
Apparantly we need more!
Who are these morons? Young idiots fuelled with alcohol enjoy 'performing' in front of them; rapists are not caught by them, and real criminals live in Spain.
Now we are going to have cameras that 'speak' to us, in stentorian Nanny tones, telling us to pick up litter.
How long before they admonoish us for Thinking in Public?
Thought Crimes have already sent some people to prison.
Remember those 'Terrorists' who 'discussed' 'possible' plots? No evidence, no plans, no passport or plane ticket, only 'thought' about it. One guy has gone down for life, for reading and talking.
What about those of us who would ike to see the end of most of the cabinet? I'm waiting for the tax on sex, but be careful, don't think about it or they'll pick you up.
BE VERY CAREFUL what you think and who you talk to.
Above all, BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.
January 19, 2007 09:35 AM