Morris dancers, black men and speed cameras - shit!

Ambling around Asda tonight I walked past a muscly black man with dodgy skin. Saw him again in the checkout queue 3 down from me. En route back to my caar with trolleyfull of goods, he appears and says hello and tries to talk to me in a decidedly weird accent. I said hello and carried on walking. He follows me to my car and gives me the old "I think we've met" line. "I don't think so" I say politely. he asks for my phone number, I lie and say "I have a boyfriend". "He pretty much doesn't care - "take a chance" he says in his dodgy foreign accent. "Er no, I have a boyfriend and I'm not interested", and I get in my car.

The bloody car then won't start, as he stands outside my window and taps on it. I'm glad that other people are around in neighbouring cars, watching me. Car starts - I wind my windown down "take a chance" he says again, "no thanks, bye" I say. "Maybe I'll see you again" he says as I back out of my parking space. "Sure", I say in my head, "when World Peace is here".

I've never been picked up in a Supermarket before, and in my newly-single state of mind it was quite flustering. Also I was pissed because he totally wasn't my type and didn't care when I said I wasn't interested and was with someone.

Driving home pondering it, I spotted the local pub beer garden - FULL of Morris Dancers, in their extremely gay outfits, standing around swilling pints. Staring at them and sniggering, I then caught the double flash of a fucking speed camera as I went thru it at 40+mph - FUCK!

I'm hoping that I won't get done - don't these cameras run out of film or something? But knowing my luck I'm screwed, another 3 points and f*cking £60. FUCKITY!!!

Crap meals out

http://b3ta.com/questions/crapmealsout/

F*cking hilarious, I got hysterics in the middle of the office reading this .....

Flag waving

Here we go again .... in the run up to the World Cup, we Brits are being told we can't fly the St George Flag or the Union Jack, "in fear of upsetting ethnic miniorities".

I'm sorry but IF YOU COME TO LIVE IN OUR COUNTRY YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH US FLYING OUR OWN FUCKING FLAG. If we went over to S. Africa or the Balkans or Lithuania and started pissing and whingeing about seeing their flags everywhere, do you think they'd say "oh, we're terribly sorry we'll take them all down, is that OK?" Somehow I THINK NOT.

I for one am never offended when I'm in a foreign country and their flags are everywhere - because it's THEIR country. Why should they compromise?

Whether or not it's just the PC do-gooders that are saying this, or whether ethnic minorities HAVE actually complained, I don't know. I remember last year at my local Uni, UK students were told to take down their flags for fear of offending foreign students. But the foreign students were allowed to fly THEIR flags in our faces. Great!

I'm not a football fan and I really don't care if we win the World Cup or not. But I am sick of us being told we can't be patriotic in our own country. Any foreigner who is offended by the sight of our flag should just deal with it. We are supporting our country in a worldwide event, which means flying our bloody flags. Wht about the Olympics? The most multicultural event ever, with flags galore - but nobody complains during the opening and closing ceremonies.

We could do things a lot worse to offend them, ie put signs up saying "f*ck off foreigners". Now that would be a better cause for complaint.

So soon we will see those Chav-tastic St George car flags banned then? And when the Queen troops the colour, the soldiers will walk around with empty flagpoles? Austin Powers' "Shaguar" is resprayed?? Are we to have fines introduced next, or even worse - a "Flag Tax" to extort even more money from us?

America is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, and they are zealous about flying the Stars & Stripes from every house, window, building and flagpole. Yet we don't hear any PC bollocks from all their foreign inhabitants. This summer and indeed, any day of the year, we should be allowed to fly whatever bloody flag we want - before any remaining Patriotism towards our country is stamped out for good.

Marriage Quotes

• Any woman can fool a man if she wants to and if he's in love with her. - Agatha Christie
• Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy, fat women. - Marion Smith
• I require only three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless and stupid. - Dorothy Parker
• Marrying a man is like buying something you've been admiring for a long time in a shop window. You may love it when you get home, but it doesn't always go with everything else in the house. - Jean Kerr
• I never married because I have three pets at home that answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog that growls every morning, a parrot that swears all afternoon and a cat that comes home late at night. - Marie Corelli
• No nice men are good at getting taxis - Katherine Whitehorn
• I like to wake up each morning feeling a new man. - Jean Harlow
• Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you. - Mae West
• Behind every great man there is a surprised woman. - Maryon Pearson
• The trouble with some woman is that they get all excited about nothing, and then marry him - Cher
• A husband is what is left of the lover after the nerve is extracted - Helen Rowland
• Before marriage a man will lay awake all night thinking about something you said; after marriage he'll fall asleep before you have finished saying it. - Helen Rowland
• An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her. - Agatha Christie
• By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy - If you get a bad one you will become a philosopher - Socrates
• Marriage is a sort of friendship recognised by the police
• Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution? - Groucho Marx
• Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures - Sanuel Johnson
• It's a funny thing that when a man hasn't anything on earth to worry about, he goes off and gets married - Robert Frost
• Marriage is popular because it combines the maximim of temptation with the maximum of opportunity - George Bernard Shaw
• Marriage is based on the theory that when a man discovers a particular brand of beer exactly to his taste, he should at once throw in his job and go to work in the brewery - George Nathan
• All husbands are alike, but they have different faces so you can tell them apart - Ogden Nash
• A husband's last words should always be 'OK buy it'.
• Nothing makes a good wife like a good husband
• Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing - The Bible
• The man who says his wife can't take a joke, forgets that she took him - Oscar Wilde
• No man should have a secret from his wife. She invariably finds it out - Oscar Wilde
• The most dangerous food a man can eat is wedding cake
• Woman like silent men, they think they are listening - Marcel Achard

Water shortage

Apparently panic buying of water butts has hit the shops, because of the impending hosepipe bans and water shortages that are hitting us even before the hot summer gets here.

How amusing that again, we have to pay for our Government's lack of action on this issue. Why hasn't legislation been put into place to force ALL new buildings to use water-saving toilets, and to use rainwater for their toilet/washbasin water? A rainwater system is easily installed and would help save our normal water. Why isn't more being done to promote these systems to householders, to encourage them to install such systems?

And I've always thought it's stupid to use how many gallons of cistern water just to flush away less than a pint of piss??

Also, the current hosepipe ban guidelines need totally revising. For instance, you can't use a hosepipe to wash your car/sprinkle your lawn, but you can use it to fill up an outdoor swimming pool. HELLO?????????

My last visit to London I marvelled at the lack of green space - there was nowhere that rainwater could fall and be soaked into the ground and back into the water table. Nope, it went on the concrete and was washed down the drains only to be leaked away, never to reach our houses. And Prescott still continues to build and build in the South, despite the impending water doom. And none of them will have water saving toilets in I'm betting.

Well my new lawn and shrubs aren't going to suffer. I may not have a hosepipe but I have a huge watering can, and a few trips to and from the kitchen sink will be in order......

Replaced

My ex (the one before the current ex) told me on MSN yesterday that he has a new girlfriend. After over a year of him being single, I've finally been replaced. They met at a track day when he was still with me, and after we split they started talking over the internet when he went to Florida. She's just been out there to visit him and they finally got it on.

Even though we didn't work out and wouldn't work out in the future, you still feel a pang when you find out that you have truly been replaced. So this Christmas it will be her going to Australia with him to meet all his family, her enjoying Christmas Day in the sun, her going scuba diving with him, her laughing with and enjoying the company of his family. Where previously it had always been me.

And she has an S2 Lotus Elise. Gggrrrr.....

My first funeral

Well I just got back from my first funeral. It was my favourite Auntie Issy's funeral and it was everything I DON'T want my funeral to be.

I guess I've done well to reach 34 and never been to a funeral. But I hope I don't have to go to another soon and I *really* don't know how I will cope at my parents' funeral, which is inevitable at some point in the future.

We all met at Issy's house and we rode in the hearse that followed the coffin. I couldn't look at the coffin in front of me, I didn't 'want to imagine her lying in there all cold - I wanted to remember her as I last saw her or heard her on the phone when we last spoke. Her body to me was just an empty vessel, no longer relevant to her or who she was.

Nobody spoke during the journey to the crem, and when they did it was in hushed whispers. Some people say that the silence and the hush is for "respect for the dead". But to me it seemed to sit all wrong, I'd not want this for my funeral - I'd want AC/DC on the stereo playing "Hell's Bells" or something.

We arrived at the crem and I only got upset the one time, when the pall bearers lifted the coffin out and into the church. It still seemed to me that she wasn't in there, that it was empty. I guess in a way it was.

Being an agnostic, the whole "God" thing just doesn't appeal to me. Walking into the modern-built Crem church and sitting down, I listened to the preacher's Bible waffle with an acrid ear. It all sounded like such empty poetic bullshit. We stood for the hymns but I couldn't sing them, I felt like too much of a fat hypocrite. God this, God that, death is the beginning of a new life in His kingdom etc etc. I guess it's fine if you believe all of that and if it comforts you, but it just irritated me. I absolutely do NOT want a religious funeral. And the coffin - why spend all that money and wood on a coffin that is just going to be burned? Waste of money and resources.

Put me in a cardboard coffin, bury me along with a newly planted tree, and leave me to fertilise the tree and feed the worms. No God, no religion, just a darn good party with Benny Goodman on the stereo and nobody talking in hushed whispers. And strictly NO black. Bright colours only, and a celebration of my life that was, not a mourning of my life now gone.

Issy had a fabulous and interesting life and I saw this as NOT a fitting way to end it. It was too quiet, too miserable, too drab, and too rushed. I will miss her and the regular phone calls we had, and I wish I could have seen her one more time before she died, but in a way I'm glad she's gone, as her quality of life was getting bad and her 80-a-day habit had finished off her lungs to the point that she could barely breathe. She seemed ready to go and join my uncle John, who died over 4 years ago. I know that they are together again somewhere and I know that they are both happy.

Then to finish the weekend off I had a huge row with my mother when we got back to Norwich, about her total negativity about everything in my life and her inability to see the positive or the good in ANYTHING I had done with the house since she last saw it. Since they arrived on Wednesday night I have heard nothing but a string of whinges (now you know where I get it from!) about the downstairs loo, the rats being smelly, the hall floor, the wood floor in the lounge, the kitchen as a whole, the bench in particular, the garden, the fact my front door doesn't have a curtain, the fact that my cafe-net in the kitchen means that neighbours can see in (like yeah, they spend all day queueing up to look into my kitchen), and the limescale stain on the front wall needs scrubbing off, the shrubs I've chosen for the garden will grow too big, the compost bin I've started won't work "because mine never did" and the fact that my house is "full of clutter" (which it totally isn't compared to her chintzy cluttered house).

I spent the journey from Norwich to Swindon and then back again plugged into my MP3 player, just to drown out her droning negativity - and I got bollocked for that and called "very rude" because I wasn't talking to anyone. When she started to work herself up into a frenzy because my dad wasn't' stopping for any petrol, I could take no more and everything blew up.

She went upstairs in tears for hours, my dad came down and gave me the "your mother is really upset" speech, and then it was my turn to explode and say that I was sick of her constant negativity and her sniping at everything about the house - the house that I had worked hard on since she'd last seen it, the garden that I had dug over myself and broke my back on, all my seedlings that were successfully sprouting, and most of all, my Fuzzbutt sewing venture that I had started from scratch with no prior sewing knowledge - I'd drafted the patterns, worked on prototypes, developed some great products, had positive feedback from the testers, had made over £900 worth of stock all by myself, all ready to sell on and make some extra money for myself - and what had she said to me?

"If I'd not given you that sewing machine you'd have spent more time on the house instead of up here"

YEAH GREAT MUM, THANKS. The f*cking house isn't going anywhere, it's perfectly liveable in, and there is plenty of time to get all the remaining jobs finished on it - as and when I get the money to finish them (which is where Fuzzbutt will help I hope).

Somehow you can feel like you've done a great job, but if your parents themselves don't say you've done a great job - then you don't feel like you have anymore. I have to stop caring what she thinks cos it's destroying me. She's downstars now watching telly, they're going home tomorrow. I'm off for a bath. I can't talk to her at the minute as we will just argue again. This had to happen, it had to be said. Her negativity and constant moaning has already driven my brother to hardly visit her any more, and it will get like that with me too if this carries on. I'm negative enough without her crap weighing on my shoulders too.

But I hate feeling angry towards her, I hate upsetting her. Cos when the day comes that her coffin is carried into a church in front of me, I know I will regret every cross word.

Monthly Jake-fest

Goddam he makes one hot cowboy - gay or not I don't care :-O

This from http://grouphug.us

Interesting entry (amongst the other entries about screwing cats and killing your third grade teacher...):

"Sometimes you just need to survive.. so everyday you entertain yourself.. and ignore the real unhappiness in your life... every now and then you pause and think.. should you be so shallow and simply live life to entertain yourself or go to the roots of the problem of your unhapiness. Then you realise that you cannot solve it because it is beyond your control so you revert back to simply entertaining yourself. because you don't know what to do otherwise.. afterall you need to survive,... and perhaps entertaining yourself could be part of the solution... then the emptiness hits you and you realise that you have not completely solve all your problems... and you still don't know how to... clock is ticking... you are still far from achieving from what you want... or is it what society wants... you don't know anymore.... "

I don't do "relationships"

Well my break-up has now got to the stage of slagging and vicious emails from all parties. I never wanted it to degenerate into this, but it has. His emails cut deep and hurt, mainly because they are true. Nobody ever wants to deal with the black and white truth about themselves, specially when it's put forward by the one person that used to care for them above all else in the world. It will be a long time before we can be proper friends again I think.

I really REALLY don't want to go through this again, I seem to seriously be facing my future alone. I'm sick of the stress, hassles and upsets that relationships bring.

"But it's just cos he wasn't the right one" people say. Maybe so, but I'm not prepared to go through even more stress and shit to try and FIND the "right one". Is there such a thing, I wonder.

It will be shit to not have someone there for some closeness when you need it the most, but I'm not prepared to go thru tons of hassle just for that one thing. I'm sick of hurting people and I'm sick of being hurt myself. Fuck it! Ready meals for one here I come.

Power is an aphrodisiac

Unbelievable revelation today that jowly saggy-eyed John Prescott had an illicit affair with his secretary is absolute proof that power is an aphrodisiac and an attraction.

What the FUCK did she fancy about that man! Imagining him naked alone is enough to turn my stomach, but she actually WANTED and DID have sex with him?? Ew!!!!

Thoughts of Dahab

What horrid news to see Dahab on our TV screens all blown to bits. Having spent 10 glorious days there last May it was very upsetting to see the shops and restaurants I'd been to, smashed to smithereens. Many Egyptians are dead, and I wondered about all the friendly "restaurant boys" that spent their time haranguing us to come and eat in their establishements. I hope they are all OK. My brother is upset too as he lived out there for 9 months and made a great many friends.

Dahab was so quiet, so peaceful and chilled, so friendly. A rapidly expanding tourist resort with utterly fabulous diving, the big hotel chains were moving in and I could see that in about a decade's time it would be ruined, so I was enjoying it while it was still small and relatively simple. Why the hell did terrorists pick such a small inconsequential town to fuck up?

We are planning to go out there diving again this August, and despite these attacks we are still planning to go. Our money will help support them in their rebuild, and I'm sure they will be pleased to see visitors still turning up despite their tragedy.

Tescos

How wonderful for Tescos as it gleefully announced it's £2.2 BILLION profits today. How utterly fucking obscene too. Their growth is at the expense of smaller grocery stores in every town and village in this country. More and more action groups are springing up to stop the spread of their Tesco Metro stores, popping up in places where there are already plenty of local businesses, and stomping them out with no conscience at all.

Now as if to try to curry our favour, they are announcing a £100m investment in "greener" stores that will use renewable energy to power them. How nice. But they will still be built the traditional way, using tons of enviro-friendly concrete and asbestos and corrugated iron and plastic. What about spending their filthy profits on proper green-designed and built supermarkets?

And do their green policies include BIODEGRADABLE CARRIER BAGS, or any scheme at all to encourage people to re-use carrier bags, use a "bag for life" or use bags made of fabric? I am still aghast that no Government policy or tax has been introduced to try and reduce the amount of carrier bags we use and waste every day. If supermarkets charged 10p per carrier bag (like LIDL and ALDIs do) then I'm betting stingy people would immediately start re-using bags.

Having recently dug my garden over and unearthed tons of plastic sweet wrappers and 6 carrier bags, I can only imagine the state of our landfills as they get more and more clogged with these cursed things.


I hope the Monopolies Commission or whoever is set to investigate Tescos, screw them good and proper and put some sort of a cap on their world domination.

However sadly, it seems that it is we the consumers that are solely responsible for their massive growth. We object to them springing up everywhere but we still shop at them. If we stayed away, then the profits would plummet and their stores would close. But in the absence of no locally-owned shops where on earth are we MEANT to buy our food from?? We all have to make an effort to travel to the local shops and the farmer's markets, and leave Tesco and their ilk to rot.

Leave those ratties alone!

I had an argybargy with my friend Greg today, who sent me an email inews piece about the spread of Bubonic Plague in Los Angeles(http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13519480,00.html). His message in the email said "I told you rats were filthy disease-ridden animals".
I had an argument with him over MSN about this. Firstly, the plague was spread by fleas infected by DEAD rats. DEAD rats. So are the rats to blame? They die, and the fleas do the natural thing and start to devour them, just like they would a dead dog, cat or even tramp.
People complain about the amount of rats in America, and indeed in our very own London. But whose fault is this? OURS. We are a nation of litterers and food wasters. Our restaurants have bulging skips out back full of waste food, not saled and disposed of properly, and our own streets are full of half-eaten food and food wrappers. Our litter bins overflow and are not regularly emptied, or there simply aren't enough bins so the rare ones we come across are always full.
Rats are plentiful because food is plentiful, and that's our fault for being lazy litterers. If food was hard to come by on city streets do you really think there would be rat populations running into the millions? No.

Rats, foxes, wild dogs and cats, are there to tidy up our laziness - and the byproduct of that is the diseases carried by the fleas that live on them.

"But rat urine can cause weals disease" says Greg. True, but dog shit can cause blindness, and how many dog owners let their dogs crap in a public park, then walk off without picking it up? Then little Timmy comes along with his football, trips, lands in the dog shit, and there you go. Domestic dogs are just as bad with disease propagation. How many houses are caked in germs because of the resident dog and cat tramping all over the surfaces with their dirty paws and dirty arses? At least domestic rats are kept contained in cages.

I would love to see the state of any big city if all the rats and other wild food predators magically disappeared for a week. We'd be gassed by the stench of all our discarded rotten food - with nobody there to eat it and clean it off the streets. Garbage disposal probably couldn't cope with the amout of food that they'd have to tidy up, so used to it being cleaned up for us by "those horrid rats".

Councils spend millions each year trying to cure rat and pest problems - but they are spending the money in the wrong area. If they spent it on more litter bins and better garbage disposal, and penalties for litter droppers, then the food would disappear and so would the pests.

I'm having babies!!!

Yes folks, me - Mrs Non-Maternal of the Millennium, I am having TONS of babies and enjoying every minute of it.

Their names are Lavendar Lady, Tanacetum, Cineraria, Foxglove, and Allium, to name but a few. No, not mad celebrity names but the names of the seeds currently sprouting in my mini-propagator.

I never thought the day would come when I started enjoying gardening. Now I've dug over and raked the back garden ready for re-seeding, and cut my borders and marked them out with twine, I am delighting in browsing garden centres perusing the plant name tags and reading the latin names that once used to irritate me so much. At the seed counter I am a shopping monster, packet after packet go into my basket, there's so much to choose from! Into the propagator they go and I watch excitedly every day as their little reedy sprouts get bigger and stronger. *sigh* my babies!

I maintain that I am still NOT getting maternal for babies of the fleshy kind. Plant babies are cool, you can leave them in their propagator and go to work, and Social Services won't be onto you for cruelty. They eat very little food and cost bugger all to mainatin. And once you stick them outside in a flower bed they look after themselves without any Teen tantrums. And if they start to piss you off then you just uproot them and chuck them away - and still no prison sentence. Excellent! Then onto the seed counter and choose something else.

Here are some pics of the garden before and after, and of my babies ....

Run Katie Run!!!

It's happened.

Somewhere deep within Tom Cruise's compound, one of the hundreds of bio-vessels gathered in the estate's silent birthing stadium has finally pushed forth into the world an offspring bearing enough of a physical resemblance to the actor (think the classic monkeys-and-typewriters scenario, but with stainless-steel turkey basters and female Scientologists in their prime reproduction years) not to arouse too much suspicion about the infant's true parentage.

In other words: The Miracle Baby has finally arrived, a 7 lb. 7 oz. girl named Suri, which we assume was the name of some futuristic seafaring vessel from an obscure L. Ron Hubbard novel.

According to a press release, "both mother and daughter are doing well." We assume they're referring to Katie Holmes, not the actual biological parent who's tending the child while Holmes tries to chew through her wrist restraints and escape during the bedlam following the birth announcement.

What is more disturbing is that apparently, Scientology rules insist that the baby must NOT be spoken to for 7 days after the birth. This is so wrong! If those nutbags believe that a) noisy birth is damaging to the child, and b) speaking to the newborn baby immediately is damaging, then WHY THE FUCK AREN'T 99% OF US ALL NUTTERS??? All our mothers yelled like buggery when we were born, plus talked to us immediately afterwards, and we are all sane and normal (well, in a way).

The fact that we ARE all sane and normal debunks the Scientology rules there and then. Exactly how desperate is Katie Holmes to be a Star that she would allow this to happen to her! She could have married another equally high profile but NORMAL actor, and received just as much exposure and film roles, but without the freaky-alien-baby-mind-control-cult-beard-to-the-biggest-Gay-in-Hollywood stuff going on.

I await with bated breath to see how this kid and other nutty celeb kids grow up. Maybe The Cruiser will go down the Jacko path and insist little "TomKitten" Suri wears a black veil at all times ... RUN SURI RUN!!!

First picture of TomKitten

This from PARADE.COM magazine interview with Tom:

"Before I left Cruise, he introduced me to Katie Holmes, who is about 5 foot 10 (he’s 5 foot 7) and pretty. She wore a large diamond engagement ring. She seemed dazed, passive and vacant. She never stopped smiling. The minute she appeared, Cruise’s now-familiar public mode of behavior returned. He began hooting how beautiful she was, touching and kissing her like a teenage boy on his first backseat date, aware that he was being watched.

“I am very, very happy!” Cruise exclaimed, grinning his public grin. “I’ve got a baby on the way! My concern is being the best parent I can be, making sure my kids can think and make decisions for themselves.”

Hmmmm - taking bets as to when the public split will be announced....

The Perfect Day

Yesterday was one of the nicest days I've had for a long time. Double glazing man was very nice and not scary in any way, despite having a George Hamilton PermaTan. He quoted me £1460 for 5 windows which is apparently around the price I should be paying, and he will knock it down to £1350 it I decide within this week. But I've got a few more coming to quote me first so no rush.

It was such a lovely sunny day and after he had left I set about raking and levelling the back garden. After receiving quotes of £150 to rotorvate it, I dug it up myself, then after receiving a ludicrous quote of £360 to rake and level it, I did that myself too. It's amazing what you can push yourself to do when you've not got the £ to pay others to do it!

I wheeled the rat cage to the open patio doors and stood it in the sun - the rats were hilarious, they had never smelt fresh outdoors air or felt the sun on their fur before. Their eyes boggled and they power-sniffed the air to within an inch of their lives. Then they settled down to sunbathe, watching me as I pottered about with my rake, throwing clods of grass into a big worm-infested pile.

After about 3 hours, the earth was flat and raked - not perfect but good enough for seeding. I went out shopping for plant seeds, bulbs and a Hydrangea bush, it was great to be driving around in the sun FINALLY after the endless winter of greyness.

I got back and pottered some more in the sun, planting seeds while Tony Bennett played on my stereo and the Devil Child across the alley screamed and crashed about in his junk-food induced frenzy. The rats dozed and power-sniffed the air some more.

It was a lovely day for me mainly because a) the sun was out and it was warm, b) I got loads of stuff done, and c) I felt happy and secure because now I'm buying out Alan's share of the house, it is truly MY house, and nobody can take it off me. I'm not dependent on anyone to help me pay for it, and nobody can threaten to take it from me.

I've decided I never want to live under a threat like that, nor have to depend on someone else in order to live my life. The house is mine and will remain MINE only, no matter who does or doesn't come into my life in the future. It will always be there for me to fall back on, whatever happens. I can do what I want when I want and where I want, and not have to be answerable to anyone else, to have to compromise for them, not have to negotiate with them. At the minute that kind of security makes me very happy indeed.

Some girls can't function without a man in their life, some don't have a choice as they need that person and their second income in order to live or to buy a house. I am very lucky that I don't need to be in that situation any more, and that my parents were sensible and careful with money and were able to help me buy the house out and keep it for myself. It's also made me more determined to be careful with my money and to invest it well and always have it to fall back on in my future years.

Madonna

Arse, I missed out on getting some Madonna tiks for her UK tour dates. And now they're on eBay for an average price of FOUR HUNDRED BLOODY QUID. Can someone PLEASE ban this practice of ripping people off for such filthy profits?!?!?!

On another random note, I have a double glazing salesman coming round today and I'm quite nervous - have been reading scare stories about how aggressive they are and how they pretty much bully you into signing up there and then. Blagger.com has some horrendous stories about Zenith Windows, so I'm giving them a miss, and my friend who actually runs his own DG company up North, says they WILL bully me. Aaargh!

Maybe if I sit there with my big squishy black rat on my shoulder he may be sufficiently scared into submission .....

Ban the movies!!!

New laws coming into force in the UK today make it illegal to "glorify terrorism" and to publicise terrorism in books, magazines or websites.

So are they going to ban screenings of every movie in the UK that includes a Terrorist plot? To me, Hollywood movies featuring Terrorists are glorifying them by just giving them film-space ..... and what about our dramas and soaps that may include terroristy stuff? Will they be banned too?

Will this blog be blocked off for containing the word "TERRORIST"???

F*ck off Chantelle!

Can someone tell me WHY all the papers are carrying front page screaming headlines about complete Munter-waste-of-space-Big-Brother-winner Chantelle getting married???

WHO GIVES A FUCK? Is she important in this world? Is she of any value at all? I cannot believe this girl's rise to fame. She has a TV show starting tonight, she's never out of the papers, now she'll be lined up for a 6-figure sum from HELLO for gushing coverage of her wedding.....followed 6 months later by gushing coverage of her divorce no doubt.

I have seen her on telly a few times and had to turn off after a few minutes, as the sight of her scraggy bleached hair, big nose and vacuous wibblings made me want to smash the TV.

I don't deny REAL stars and REAL celebrities their fame, if they have an art or a talent. But these fucking Z-listers that the tabloid rags and gossip mags fawn over really do need lining up against a wall and shooting. And the idiots who BUY the gossip mags and fuel this phenomenon also need shooting. I guess I shouldn't even be publicising the stupid bimbo on this blog...

Some people would say "she's very clever really, she's making a lot of money while she's hot property, which is better than working 9 to 5 for 40 years for next to no money". Well true in a way, but Chantelle and all her Ilk have started a rotting disease in our society and entertainment world today, and the very word "celebrity" has been dirtied and cheapened for good by being associated with these no-talent media whores.

The American argument part 4!

My Yank friend has responded to my email in which I quoted Michal's comment from my earlier blog: Here is what he says:


Now is a good time for me to lay out the basic assumptions that I bring into all discussions regarding current events. This way you can better understand where I am coming from:

1. Western civilization is superior to all other civilizations.
2. Judeo/Christianity is the foundation on which Western civilization is built.
3. Market capitalism and competition is the best way to spread wealth and financial security to the greatest number of people.
4. Constitutional democracy is messy, clumsy, frustrating and slow. It is also proves to be the best form of government to have if you want to live in peace and prosperity.
5. The UK and the USA have done more than any other nations to spread peace, prosperity, enlightenment and to protect freedom than all other nations of the world combined. PERIOD!!

I base these on my observation and study of history.

Regarding your last email: paragraph three says "Sources can be cited to prove two different and yet plausible sides to any argument" True enough. In such cases the disagreement is ended simply by rejecting that which is outside the bounds of logic and reason. Any argument that is too convoluted must be rejected. The simplest explanation is always the better one. {OCCAM's Razor}

I referred him to the Oscar Wilde quote at the top of this blog! And he has now replied:

"I'll side with Mr. Occam when it comes to truth. Mr. Wilde was far too debauched to rely on, for anything.

BTW.....for future discussions bear in mind that I do not view the British people as European, that would be an insult.

I strongly suggest you seal off the Chunnel and stay as far away from France and Germany as you can. Britain's future wealth and happiness would be better served with closer ties to Japan and your cousins the Australia and the US.

Mainland Europe will only prove to be a drag on the proud, strong and free people of the UK.

PS....make sure Ken Livingston is in the Chunnel when you seal it off. OK?"

Quote of the day

From my mum over MSN Messenger, who despairs of me ever settling down:

"There are worse things these days than not being married - like being married with today's types of men".

:-D Right on mum!

What to believe - AGAIN

Well, so this week I read reports that some Scientific report is rubbishing the benefits of Omega 3 and fish oils to our health - pretty much saying that they don't really do much and spouting evidence that they make little difference to our overall health.

Then I come across this article (http://www.patrickholford.com/content.asp?id_Content=1607) that says the opposite and debunks the first report.

So, going back AGAIN to my political arguments of the last week and in particular, Sperestillen's ranting comments at me for not believing HIS opinions ... which version of this story am I to believe?? Each report comes from apparently credible sources, but one of them is wrong. Again, becuase of my own attidues and beliefs about healthy eating, I would be more inclined to believe that oily fish DOES have health benefits.

So it doesn't matter whether you are talking 9/11 conspiracy theories or our own diets, WHAT ARE WE MEANT TO BELIEVE???

I wish I could wake up next to .....

THIS!

*YOWSER*

Jake Marry Me.....

Grave robbing versus raping

News yesterday that up to 40 rapists a year walk free with just a caution. Home Office figures showed the number of offenders let off without charge DOUBLED in the last decade, while conviction rates fell sharply.

News today that the animal rights protestors who robbed a grave are to be sentenced for 12 YEARS for their crime.

Erm is it just me or is something a bit fucked up here???

Killer cosmetics

Every time you make up, you lather your face with a deadly cocktail of carcinogens, preservatives, mutagens, allergens, toxic heavy metals and other poisons that slip through the loose regulatory net.

Many women think that makeup is just a bit of harmless feel-good fun and that the makeup they put on their faces each day - and wear for long hours at a time - is just a benign enhancement to beauty. Yet, by the time a woman has made up her face, she will have covered her skin with carcinogens and preservatives, mutagens (substances that cause genetic mutations), allergens, central nervous system disruptors, toxic heavy metals and poisons.

Makeup is a particularly insidious form of pollution because its chemical ingredients enter the body through multiple routes. We can swallow, inhale and absorb them through the skin as well as through the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth and nose. In addition, cosmetics commonly contain moisturisers in the form of wetting agents (such as propylene glycol) and humectants (such as glycerine) which, while relatively harmless in themselves, increase the skin’s permeability, thus allowing more of these toxic ingredients to be absorbed into the body.

Many assume that the government oversees the safety and efficacy of cosmetics. But makeup manufacturers are not required by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) or the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to demonstrate that their products are either safe or effective.

Fragrance is a particularly thorny issue for consumers as most of us will never know which fragrance chemicals are in the products we use. Manufacturers are allowed to list them under the catch-all heading of ‘fragrance’, which belies the often hundreds of different ingredients involved in a single scent (even the simplest ones use 40 to 50 ingredients). Most of these are neurotoxic chemicals associated with central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and sudden infant death syndrome. Many have even been labelled ‘toxic waste’ by the FDA.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency report Health Hazard Information (EPA, 1991), the 20 most common fragrance ingredients constitute a toxic soup that no thinking person would wish to be exposed to. Of these chemicals, seven - 1,8-cineole, beta-citronellol, beta-myrcene, nerol, ocimene, beta-phenethyl alcohol and alpha-terpinolene - are completely lacking in safety data.

As for the rest:

• Acetone is on the hazardous waste lists of several government agencies. It is a CNS depressant which can cause dryness of the mouth and throat, dizziness, nausea, lack of coordination, slurred speech, drowsiness and, in severe exposures, coma.
• Benzaldehyde acts as a local anaesthetic and CNS depressant, and can cause irritation to the mouth, throat, eyes, skin, lungs and GI tract, causing nausea and abdominal pain. It can also cause kidney damage.
• Benzyl acetate is an environmental pollutant and potential carcinogen that has been linked to pancreatic cancer. Its vapours are irritating to the eyes and respiratory airways, and it can also be absorbed through the skin, causing systemic effects.
• Benzyl alcohol is irritating to the upper respiratory tract, and can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, falls in blood pressure, CNS depression and, in severe cases, death due to respiratory failure.
• Camphor is a local irritant and CNS stimulant that is readily absorbed by body tissues. Inhalation can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and cause dizziness, confusion, nausea, muscle twitches and convulsions.
• Ethanol is on the EPA hazardous waste list as it causes CNS disorders, and irritates the eyes and upper respiratory tract even at low concentrations. Inhalation of its vapours has the same effect as ingestion, including an initial stimulatory effect followed by drowsiness, impaired vision, loss of muscle coordination and stupor.
• Ethyl acetate (on the EPA hazardous waste list) is a narcotic that is irritating to the eyes and respiratory tract. It can cause headache and stupor, and has a defatting effect on skin which may lead to drying and cracking. In extreme cases, it may cause damage to the liver and kidneys, and anaemia with high white cell counts.
• Limonene is a carcinogen as well as a skin and eye irritant and allergen. *Linalool is a narcotic known to cause CNS disorders, and may lead to sometimes fatal respiratory disturbances, poor muscle coordination and reflexes, and depression. Animal tests show that it may also affect the heart.
• Methylene chloride was banned by the FDA in 1988, but no enforcement is possible due to trade-secret laws protecting the chemical fragrance industry. Occupying the hazardous waste lists of several government agencies, it is a carcinogen and CNS disruptor absorbed and stored in body fat; it metabolises to carbon monoxide, reducing the amount of oxygen in the blood. Other adverse effects include headache, giddiness, stupor, irritability, fatigue and tingling in the limbs.
• alpha-Pinene is a skin-sensitising agent that is damaging to the immune system.
• gamma-Terpinene causes asthma and CNS disorders.
• alpha-Terpineol is highly irritating to mucous membranes. Breathed into the lungs, it can lead to pneumonitis or even fatal water retention. It can also cause nervous excitement, loss of muscle coordination, low body temperature, CNS and respiratory depression, and headache. Scientific data warn against its repeated or prolonged skin contact.

The most commonly used cosmetic preservatives are alkyl hydroxy benzoates - methylparaben, ethylparaben, butylparaben and propylparaben, either alone or, more often, in combination.

Parabens are well recognised as skin sensitisers (causing skin reactions), and the UK’s Brunel University has found parabens to be oestrogen mimics as well.

Sunscreens are also easily absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream, the effects of which are still unknown. Screening chemicals in sun creams, lipsticks and other cosmetics have been revealed by Swiss researchers to be hormone-disrupting chemicals.

Most of us avoid foods that contain artificial colours yet, every day, women paint their faces with a range of artificial colours known to cause health problems. Artificial colours may be carcinogens (such as all coal-tar dyes) whereas others may contain hidden carcinogenic impurities.

While use of a single makeup product may be ‘safe’, your total daily exposure to coloured products - in soap, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, juices, cereals, pastries, coffee, creamer, even vitamins - may add up to an unacceptable risk.

Mascara - especially those that claim to extend your lashes - can contain any number of carcinogenic plasticisers like polyurethane. The silica commonly used in cosmetics may be contaminated with the carcinogenic crystalline form, but it is impossible to tell which silica-containing products are contaminated. Using any silica-containing product is simply playing cosmetic Russian roulette. Most makeup - even powder formulations - contain mineral oil to bind the ingredients together, and to provide the base for liquid formulas and lipsticks.

Mineral oils were first recognised as carcinogens in 1987. Listed as ‘parafinnum liquidim’ (the stuff that baby oil is made from) or ‘petrolatum’ (petroleum jelly), these highly refined oils have a chequered history. Mineral oils are also thought to increase skin photosensitivity, making it more prone to sun damage.

When considering the things that influence good health, most of us recognise that environment has an increasingly strong influence on our day-to-day health. We understand pollution from factories and cars, in our water and on the food we eat. But there is still a lack of awareness of the contributory effects of household and personal-care products, especially cosmetics.

Women who wear makeup are exposing themselves for most of the day, and often seven days a week, to an ugly cocktail of allergens, carcinogens, and hormone and CNS disruptors - all in the name of beauty.

Pat Thomas is the author of Cleaning Yourself to Death (Gill & Macmillan, 2001), a comprehensive guide to the toxins in toiletries and cleaning products.

Greetings all and sundry

Please be patient while I transfer all my content across from MSN Spaces! I hope Blogger.com doesn't spam all my entries like SPACES did .....

Decisions decisions

The past week of political arguing, coupled with a few other things I've been pondering, have got me thinking - "what on earth should we believe"?

Today at work a student handed in a book all about the food industry, that debunks all the myths that you see the press raving about, ie genetically modified fruit, packaging and transport of food destroying the environment etc. I had a quick flick through and it was amazing how this book made you totally believe the opposite of what the fearmongering Mainstream Media would have us belive. For instance:

Fears of antibiotic resistance in animals spreading to humans is calmly answered with "The use of antibiotics in young animals keeps meat prices low and does not materially contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans."
Packaging and transporting food is environmentally unfriendly is answered with "Packaging enhances the shelf life of products and reduces wastage during transport. Transporting food allows society to take advantage of different environmental and socio-economic conditions that exist in different places."

The whole book is designed to convince us that the modern way of processing and plastic-wrapping food, is a GOOD and BENEFICIAL thing for our world today.

Now some people may read this book and be convinced, while others will pooh-pooh it and continue with their own initial beliefs. Beliefs that came about because of something they saw on telly or something they read in the media, whether it be a commercial popular website or one of these "truth" websites that claim to give you the "real" news.

Why did they choose to believe the nasty scary version of life, rather than the other "it's safe really, you can trust us" version? Why do I choose to believe the "it's all a conspiracy designed to rip us off" version of events? Because I've read this or seen that on telly, and choose to believe what it says.

I guess having first hand experience of something will definitely cement your opinions, ie if you worked in a chicken factory for a week you would know that all the press is true. And if you were on the front line in Iraq with inadequate body armour you would know the news reports denying inadequate body armour are crap. But unless you can GET first hand experience you will have to trust what people tell you.

Shame we can't all spend a week eavesdropping in the Oval Office, No 10 and Congress .....

Whilst arguing with my Yankee friend he was throwing facts at me about how great Bush is and how the Iraq war was justified and how the Twin Towers WAS a Bin Laden plot....but for every fact he threw at me, I could find another one on another website that said totally the opposite.

So it's all really our own minds and characters that ultimately decide our opinions. Depending on how our views on the world have been built up, we then read something and either believe it, or not believe it. But our views have been built up by what we have seen or read or heard about in the pub/on the telly/on the internet, so you can go round in circles!

Common sense plays a part too I believe, for instance - I refuse to believe that spraying fruit with a cocktail of chemicals before flying it to Jamaica to get packed, then flying it back to the UK for Asda, is a good thing - both for our bodies or for the environment. And no amount of debunking books will change my mind. I also refuse to believe that a 757 punched such a small hole in the Pentagon, as the photographic evidence to ME seems irrefutable.

If we were to try and find the source of everything we read in the media, and try and find out if it was true or not, we'd go insane. You just can't track it all down, and if you did and someone said "it's the truth, honest" then again it's up to ourselves to decide again. So we are back to the saying in my earlier blog:

It is always better to say right out what you think without trying to prove anything much: for all our proofs are only variations of our opinions, and the contrary-minded listen neither to one nor the other."~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Politics again

My American friend has now resorted to being a twat rather than argue his case rationally. Here is the latest email:

===============================
Rache;

We've tried our best to protect our plot but somehow our attempts at secrecy have
failed and our cover is blown. Yes, we Americans are attempting to take over the
world and Joe American is one of our loyal foot soldiers. His communications with
you were totally unauthorized and he is now in protective custody in one of our safe
houses. Any attempts by you to rescue him will result in his execution.

After we conquer the world Mr. American will be given an estate in East Anglia in
appreciation for all his loyal work.

He has requested that you be captured and made part of his English harem. {He has a
thing for red heads} Consider this an honor, for most of your fellow countrymen will
be placed in political re-education camps.

Resistance in futile. {Earth first....we can conquer the solar system later}

General Field Marshall Grand Puba of the Glorious American Armies
===============================

This from a guy who believes a 757 hit the Pentagon but will not answer my questions of "WHERE IS THE WRECKAGE IN THE PHOTOS and how a 757 can fit into such a small neat rounded hole that was punched into the side of the Pentagon??"

The death of paper-based media

About bloody time - and all thanks to Charlie Sheen!

Did you Know?

• The average supermarket chicken contains nearly a pint of ‘bad’ fat, traces of antibiotics, has hock burns from standing in its own excrement and bones so spongy they can be minced up to make hot dogs.
• Single servings of some ready-made puddings contain the same amount of salt as two packets of crisps
• Milk is cheaper than water in many shops
• Only 20% of apples consumed in the UK are produced here
• One Dairy Lea Lunchable (harvest ham) contains 37% more salt than the recommended maximum daily intake for a 6 year old child
• To fly a Kiwi fruit to the UK takes the same weight in fuel as the fruit
• Up to 30% of road freight is food related
• Robinsons ‘Fruit Shoot’ Juice Drink contains only 11% juice. You would need to purchase 31 300ml bottles, costing £20.60, before you would get a litre of pure, undiluted fruit juice.
• There is 70g of sugar in a 500ml bottle of ready mixed Ribena. The same amount as seven lollipops and 10g more than a 10 year old child's recommended maximum sugar intake for a whole day.
• Sugar puffs are 49% sugar.
• Some canned ham may contain just 55% meat – padded out with water, ‘pork protein’ (gelatine), salt, sugar and additives.
• Most hot dogs are made from ‘mechanically separated’ chicken flesh, mixed with water, a little pork, and a wide range of starches, collagens and additives.
• Supermarket fresh pork chops are often injected with water and salt to make them… ‘more succulent’.
• On average for every £1 spent on food in the supermarket farmers get 9p
• At a school I visited recently the burgers served, I assumed they were beef, contained: 48% chicken, water, beef fat, beef heart, rusk, starch, onion, salt, spices hydrolysed vegetable protein, etc, etc. (no beef meat)
• Some soups are as salty as seawater. Researchers discovered a chicken soup from the New Covent Garden Food Company had 6.25g of salt per 250g bowl. There are 3.5g of salt in 100g of seawater. The Food Standards Agency recommends adults to consume no more than 6 grams of salt in a day.
  

PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS MARKET and buy fresh non-tampered with veg, fruit and meats! Car boot sales also have a variety of fruit and veg stalls where you can buy sprouts still on the stalk, carrots wtill with all the leaves on, and spuds still covered with soil. MMMMM!!!!

Freedom of Speech?

It is always better to say right out what you think without trying to prove anything much: for all our proofs are only variations of our opinions, and the contrary-minded listen neither to one nor the other."~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Are we or are we not entitled to our own opinions and Freedom of Speech and a right to protest publicly about what we either agree or disagree with?

I sent my argumentative friend this picture, which maybe I shouldn't have given his current attitude towards me:

http://freecycle.raches-photos.co.uk/dc-freddieprotest.jpg

This picture was taken as a joke during my recent US holiday. The yellow thing in question is my travel mascot, who goes everywhere with me as a good luck kind of thing. He also engaged in a peaceful protest outside the White House as you can see. Thousands of people in the past have stood on Pennsylvania Avenue doing exactly the same thing and waving much more offensive placards. Witness the Inauguration Parade protests for example!!!

So this was his reply:

Miss Smith;

Sophomoric stunts hardly qualify as exchanging opinions and ideas.

I assumed that as an adult such adolescent activity was left in your past. So excuse me for expecting properly raised adults {especially ladies} to exercise good taste and discretion, especially while a guest in a foreign country.

Obviously I was mistaken.

Regards;

===============================

To which I have replied:

"Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

If you came over to the UK and exhibited your opinion on our Queen or Blair, then you would be perfectly within your rights to do so. People who saw you may object or be offended, or agree with you, but ultimately you have a right to express your opinion, whatever it may be. Just like the Muslims in Trafalgar Square getting upset about the cartoons, or some hippies protesting about the building of a new airport, or the foxhunting protestors. Or 2 million people walking the streets of London objecting to the Iraq war. They have a right to protest and a right to freedom of opinion and expression.

If any of your other friends disagree with your views do you cut them dead too? Life's too short to ruin friendships over differences in opinion. You can say what you like about Blair or our Royal Family or the way Britain is run, and I will either agree or disagree but ultimately I have to accept that it is YOUR opinion, and let it lie. But I only cut off friendships if the slaggings get very personal towards myself or my family. Politics will never be agreed upon by anyone, and I for one will be keeping my opinions to myself in the future, it's not worth the hassle."

===============================

I just don't get his anger at the fact I dared express my opinions, which happened to be the opposite of his. If you think you're not going to like what you hear then don't bloody bother to ask!!!

He also says in another email where I questioned him on the PNAC:

"Good Morning Rache;

The PNAC? Oh, come on. You are getting worked up over the PNAC?!

Organizations touting similar ideals have been in existence in the US going back to the early late 1700's. The PNAC is merely a modern day version of the Federalists. In fact when it comes to their mission statement, Presidents from Jefferson to Wilson would have applauded it.

From what I can see it looks like continental Europe could use a generous dose of what the PNAC is advocating.....free market capitalism, competition, private enterprise and limited government.

Looking at the economic conditions of Germany and France {and the current riots in Paris} how can you have a problem with that? God forbid that the US ever fashion itself after a European style welfare state. Hopefully there is still time and still enough clear thinking citizens of Britain to banish all vestiges of Socialism from its shores. As I see it the beat thing you can do is get the hell out of the EU. The only thing that membership in the EU will do for Britain is drive it into the ground economically and weaken your national modernity. Get out while the getting is good.

Sadly many Americans have bought into the siren song of government sponsored welfare. Consequently they are exhibiting the same attitude that the French rioters have, i.e. "I am entitled to a job, I am entitled to health care, etc, etc, etc" This only serves to promote laziness and dependency. Three generations of Socialism will do that to a nation.

Strange that you seem to fear the ideas of the PNAC more than you fear the ultimate goal of Osma Bin Laden. He is on public record as saying the goal of radical Islam is to restore the ancient Islamic Empire. Now that is something to fear!!"

===============================

I found it interesting that he mentioned Bin Laden, who seems to have dropped off the radar where GWB is concerned.

Never discuss politics with Americans

Well, the friend (probably now an ex-friend) who I was having political arguments with has referred to me as "an emotional idiot" and will now probably never write back. Just cos I disagreed with his views on Bush, America and the world today.

He started the discussions off, he asked for my opinions, he said that people he worked with "Just talked about sport" and he wanted a bit more of an interesting debate. So I gave him my views, he disagreed with them, I disagreed with him, and he chucked his toys out of the pram and is now hurling insults at me.

This is the second American who has stopped speaking to me just cos I don't agree that Bush is a Saint and Saviour. Jesus they are so fucking patriotic! Chill man, you wanted a discussion so accept it when other people don't agree with you - let it go, life's too short! If we all had the same opinions life would be very boring!!!

I guess I'll never bother talking politics with one again
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30 March
Who's right?
I am e-mail arguing with a friend at the moment about Bush and America's PNAC. I pretty much say that the PNAC is a scary document that to me, outlines America's plans for World Domination. I was also arguing the case for the non-appearance of WMD and the fact that Bush/Blair went to war without a second UN resolution.

Here is his reply, as you can see he's pretty pissed....


Hello Rache;

Neither the President nor the Prime Minister "ignored" the UN nor were they advocating a nuclear weapons strike against Iraq. In fact both spent way too much time trying to convince Russia, France and China {permanent members of the Security Council} to give their vote for direct military force in order to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. This was a waste of precious time since all three had already stated publicly that they would never vote for military force against Sadddam regardless of what the evidence showed.

Your contention that "blatant evidence showed that there were no nuclear weapons" is not accurate. Presidents and Prime Ministers do not go out spying for themselves, they rely on others to do that for them. They must make decisions based on the best information at hand. I believe they did. Given Saddams track record, the technological ability of scientists to make smaller and smaller WMD devices and the potential loss of innocent life if on is set off in NY or London they had no other choice.

While many were fooled by Saddams manipulations of "not quite in compliance but not in total defiance" strategy, thank God Bush and Blair saw through it and realized the danger. What would you prefer: a Prime Minister who assumes the worse and acts accordingly or a Prime Minister who runs to the UN and hopes for the best? {give me a Churchill over a Neville Chamberlin any day}

Sending in special forces to take out the leaders of Iran is doable in spy novels but I fear it is a little different in the real world. Iran learned from the Israeli air attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 to disperse its work shops, components, technicians etc. Plus, Iran is ready for such an attack and has far more sophisticated radar and anti aircraft systems. Plus Iran is a huge country.

Your special interest groups sound rather interesting but you are missing my point.

I'm sure you have internet access, a cell phone, personal savings accounts, travel, life insurance, own a car, etc etc. The list is endless. Well, you are a member of a special interests groups whether you care to admit it or not. Also, I don't know how it is at your job but if Premier Dental doesn't make a profit I don't get paid. Thank God for profits and thank God for General Motors, General Dynamics, Microsoft, Ford, etc. If it weren't for big business and wealthy people who exactly would we be paying our salaries?

America wants to rule the world?!! You're joking, right? This would be insulting if it were not so absurd. Honey, if the US really wanted to take over the world it could have done it a long time ago. 1946 would have been a real good time for it. In fact there isn't much out there now that could stop us if we really wanted to capture the world. Get real. OK? You sound like Ken Livingston or Kim Jung Il.

Drink your milk ....

I saw a laughable advert from the makers of Coco Pops - their new idea to encourage kids to drink milk is their "Coco Pops straws" - highly sugary chocolate straws that seem to be too big to fit into your cereal bowl, but that will encourage kids to slurp their milk through them. OOOH FANTASTIC - get your kids to drink milk but first, saturate it with sugar! It's bad enough that Coco Pops are about 50% sugar and don't fill you up for longer than an hour, but now they will be eating LESS because those silly straws don't even make up a good bowl of breakfast!

Any parent that falls for this crap should be shot. If you want to encourage your kids to drink milk, then make them cool fruit smoothies - much better for them, no need to add sugar, totally healthy, and you can't even taste the milk thanks to the fruity goodness.

GO NATURAL - Update

Good Lord read these:

http://pureskincare.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=infopages&pages_id=19

http://pureskincare.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=infopages&pages_id=20

"The main lubricants in many moisturisers, conditioners and hand creams are liquid paraffin, propylene glycol and mineral oil. These by products of the petroleum industry are used in large numbers of cosmetics and toiletries due to the fact that they are very cheap. These petrochemicals can cause photosensitivity (i.e. can promote sun damage), and strip the natural oils from the skin causing chapping and dryness. They can also prevent the effective elimination of toxins from the skin, resulting in acne and other disorders.

Propylene glycol is a common ingredient in moisturisers, yet also used extensively in brake fluids and antifreeze products! This ingredient can result in sensitivity reactions and is the most widely used moisture carrying ingredient in cosmetics.

This ingredient has been found to be a neurotoxin by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (the Medical Post, 27 September 1994) and it has been recently been connected to contact dermatitis, kidney damage and liver abnormalities"

And so on. Throw out that Oil of Olay and Go Organic!!!

GO NATURAL!

Having become a label-freak with my food I'm now applying it to the things I smear on my face every morning. I recently went to Boots to buy a new moisturiser, and I looked at the ingredients.

Good Lord, I am only now realising what a cocktail of chemicals we smear on ourselves every morning as we get ready. Hair wash, face wash, deodorant, cleanse tone moisturise, concealer, foundation, hair gel, hairspray....the combined list of impossible-to-spell words that our skin absorbs as we get ready for work is very scary!

I'm no scientist and I don't know the full danger of these things, but if you look at a microwave spag bol and see it's full of unpronounceable chemicals and think "I'm not eating that!", then the same should apply to your cosmetics.

Face cream is now more expensive per ounce than GOLD. This can't be right! For example: Clinique Repairwear SPF 15 Lotion costs £45 - Price per 100 ml: £ 116.67. FOR SUN BLOCK???

A VERY useful website to check out the safety of what you smear over yourself is http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/. Just enter in the name of what you use and it gives it a safety rating, tells you the ingredients, and then warns you if there's anything dodgy about the product. Let's look at the Clinique SPF lotion, this is what the report says:

Hazards of one or more ingredients - Cancer hazard, Unsafe for use in cosmetics, Potential for harmful impurities, Estrogenic chemicals and other endocrine disruptors, Immune system toxicants (allergies, sensitization), Ingredient(s) not assessed for safety ...

And the list goes on. The actual list of ingredients was just too much to list here, it was massive! Overall, this product scores 4.2 which is at the "very bad for yoU" level, according to EWG. And all this for a cream that costs £116 PER 100ML.

Of course, the industry recognises that we are all now more aware of organic this and that, and natural products this and that, so they jump on the bandwagon. And we fall for it! But READ THE LABEL.
Clairol Herbal Essences Fruit Fusions Moisturizing Body Wash with Kumquat, Tamarillo & Green Apple sounds lovely, and indeed smells lovely, and that silly woman in the advert groans and yelps as she massages the following soup of toxins into her hair:

Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Fragrance, Glycerin, Cyphomandra Betacea (Tamarillo) Extract, Fortunella Margarita (Kumquat) Fruit Extract, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, PEG-150 Pentaerythityl Tetrastearate, PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, Polyquaternium-10, Methyl Gluceth 10, Sodium Chloride, Sodium PCA, Disodium EDTA, Diazolidinyl Urea, Propylene Glycol, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Orange 4, Red 4, Red 33.
This product is also tested on animals, and some ingredients are Unsafe for use in cosmetics, Classified as toxic, and Illegal for use in food!

We need to move over to the REAL natural hair & beauty products, not the ones that "pretend" to be natural, still use the same old chemicals, and charge us the earth for doing so. I have switched over to the www.lush.co.uk range of solid shampoo bars. They are fab! They aren't packaged in plastic so you're not contributing to landfills, they work, and they are packed with PROPER natural ingredients.

They do cost a bit more than your average £2.50 bottle of Fructis but the choice is yours - save money and drown your skin in chemicals, or spend a bit more and give your body a break! And if you already spend £30 on that Clinique moisturiser then a £17 organic one will be a price break for you!

www.safecosmetics.org
www.lush.co.uk
www.greenpeople-organic-health.co.uk/Links_Other.htm
http://shop.earthbound.co.uk/acatalog/organicskincareMoisturisers.html
www.beebeauty.com/

Independence

So I finished with my boyfriend, because I realised it wasn't working but mainly because I freaked out being "dependent" on him for my living (ie sharing the mortgage on a house). Now I am buying out his share of the house and taking it on myself (with a little help from the parents and my future inheritance ).

As is perfectly understood, he has downed tools and taken them all home, and is now leaving me to it - and there are several DIY jobs that still need finishing. Kitchen and bathroom tiling, bathroom, hall walls to prep and paint, hall and landing flooring, complete revamp of the downstairs loo, radiator to be installed in said loo and also the hall, fitted wardrobe to be put up in sewing room, skirting boards in the lounge, 3 cupboards to shelve out, wardrobe in main bedroom too, and double glazing to 5 more windows. Not to mention the lawn rotorvating and reseeding.

He departed the house the last time I saw him with the words "if you need any help just ask". I haven't asked him to do any of the above DIY jobs cos really that'd be a bit taking the piss. I've asked if his garage would change my cam belt and he helpfully suggested that I find somewhere in Norwich to do it as I'd have to "wait a few hours" for the job to be done, and he obviously doesn't want me "waiting a few hours" at his place. I asked him to come and remove the pile of rubble in the back garden that he wants for his driveway, and now he's "busy all next week and the week after and I can remove it myself if I want". Well I don't bloody want, there's loads of it and it's too heavy for me to move myself. he can come and bloody get it. On learning of me getting handyman quotes he just said "I hope you find a decent one", then offered to do it himself IF I PAID HIM. Yep, "just ask if you need any help". I can just hear him putting down the phone and saying "you wanted independence love, here you are......" I totally agree with him, it's like if I'd been building him a huge website and he dumped me, I'd be hitting the DELETE key on his website. But I get pissed when people say "just ask if you need help" then totally DON'T help when you ask. At least be honest and say "get on with it love, see you in 10 years".

So now I'm getting handyman quotes to shelve out my three huge cupboards (£60 not too bad) and also to rotorovate the lawn in readiness for reseeding (another £60).

Althought to finish the house totally will now cost me £££££ and take a couple of years at least, I would prefer it cost me £££ than for me to go grovelling to him for help. On Saturday I bought an electric sander and some refills for the belt sander we bought together, and I attacked the hall walls with relish, sanding, smoothing, and filling the crappy walls in readiness for painting. I painted the hall and landing ceilings, bought a garden storage chest, and cleared out the other shed so there is room for my bike (get it out of the hallway!) I can't wait for the cupboards to be shelved as then the whole house will be decluttered when I shove it all inside them.

I felt a lot better doing all that myself than just sitting back waiting for him to do it. So I'll just deal with bare-walled bathrooms and crappy hall flooring for a year or so longer, it will be done in the end and even though I'll be paying someone to do it, I will feel more of a sense of achievement about it.

I can't wait for the summer - sitting out back in a hammock looking over the newly-seeded lawn, designing a garden layout for it, enjoying the warmth and silence of the house all to myself. I've decided that for the foreseeable future I will only want a man around when I need DIY doing .

Talking about F*ck of the Irish

EXACTLY MY SENTIMENTS!!! Go Michael ...

Quote

F*ck of the Irish

I'm in one of those moods again. A combination of our nation's shoddy excuse for public transport, our nation's appalling weather, our nation's redundant youth and our neighbouring nation's stupid national holiday have put my in the foulest mood since that time I had two teeth pulled in one sitting.

Seriously, St. Patricks Day is not a occasion to get plastered. Surely if Patrick was a fucking Saint then he wouldn't have been much of a drinker anyway would he!? You fucking morons, St. Patricks Day is nothing more than an excuse for a piss up. As if our society of cretins and miscreants needed another reason to get utterly wankered and piss me off. I have seen precisely ZERO Irish people today. The number of moronic pricks staggering about with their Guinness hats hanging precariously onto their bobbing heads, shouting, cursing, puking and feeling each other up on the train platform has been staggering. For fuck's sake just get out of my fucking way. St. Patricks Day, what a pile of wank.

And if you are under 18 and happen to live in Godalming with "Mummy and Daddy" and care to go out to Guildford dressed as though you are grungers yet continue to talk like the bunch of fucking Ra-ras you are under all that make up, drinking vast amounts of vodka pilfered from Daddy's spirits cabinet then that's all well and good. But if you ever congregate in vast numbers on Guildford Train Station Platform 8 and 6, screaming, shouting and generally being a troupe of evil-annoying-idiot-fucks then be warned. Next time I'm just going to hijack a bulldozer and sweep you all under the next train coming into the station. Nothing would bring me more pleasure than the sound of your skulls being smashed asunder along with your preppy little iPod Nanos, and I can do that safe in the knowledge that I'm doing society at large a favour and raising the collective level of intelligence of man kind.

Don't think I forgot about you either, yeah you, the group of little bastards on the train out of Fratton. There's a special kind of hell reserved for people like you. I believe that it's a lifetime of welfare and about 20 kids. Enjoy, you little shits. I laugh at the fact that your life will be ultimately futile and worthless, that the sum efforts of your meagre time here on this Earth will amount to what I'm able to produce in 10 minutes in the bathroom.

M I C H A E L I S E N R A G E D T O D A Y

Dodgy mobile phone callers

I got a phone call today from a company claiming to be calling me on behalf of Vodafone, and telling me my contract was about to expire and that I was due a "free" phone upgrade.

Alarm bells rang instantly as I vaguely remembered a news article about these companies, who are NOT affiliated to the mobile phone company they claim to represent. They offer you the free upgrade and say they will renew your contract, but it's actually bollocks - they tie you into all sorts of deals that cos you money and are VERY hard to get out of.

I rang Vodafone and double checked about my contract, which IS up for renewal, but they said to ignore anyone external, renewed my contract and I declined an upgrade. Sorted!

Just a warning to you all out there - always check with the phone company PERSONALLY than with a dodgy company!

Modern Society is Insane

This entry from the fabulous blog ihatebullshit.com:

Modern society is insane. It seems that every single year, we manage to do things that send us hurtling back into the dark ages.

This article just tries to pull back the balance between the good and evils that are common-sense and bullshit, a little like Star Wars, although instead of a light sabre, it’s just me waving my cock around.

Feminism

There’s nothing worse than some Feminazi bitch protesting her rights at you when all you did was ask directions to the nearest shit-cubicle.

I happen to know a feminist. She’s just an old bitch who complains at just about everything. She complained when I looked into a room that happened to be full of girls. She complained when I looked down into the library when it happened to have some girls in it. She complained when one of my friends was walking behind her on the stairs and that he was supposedly trying to look up her skirt.

Christ on a bike, love, nobody wants to see what you’re hoarding up your arse-cloth. Maybe 30 years ago, but not anymore. Go knit me a jumper and shut the fuck up.

Political ‘Correctness’

Bullshit.

Just in case you’ve never heard of the term, it’s basically another attempt at shitting on the chest of the English language. Basically, any term what-so-ever that specifies the gender, race, religion, etc of a person is strictly forbidden.

An example of PC is to call a Juvenile delinquent a troubled youth, although this does very little to change the fact that they’re just cheeky little shits, nor does it change the fact that somebody who is follicularly challenged is actually just bald.

It does even less to change the fact that somebody who is heavyset is actually just a fat fucker.

People are becoming total pussies by constantly trying to play down reality by introducing these shitty “cover-up” words.

Conclusion

When you look at modern society as a whole, all we’ve achieved by racial equality, feminism, political correctness and other bullshit is that we now live in a society where we can’t say somebody is black/white/green/purple/etc without being a racist nor can we specify that somebody is a man or a woman without being ‘politically incorrect’.

To conclude, all we’ve done is achieve madness by being over sensitive.

Changing several words is going to do very little to curb the hatred of man, so how about we all shut the fuck up and just keep using the damn words.

Ginger Kids

Had to post this extract from the Southpark show "Ginger Kids":

http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/1123.html

As a fellow redhead I found it a tad amusing - I am a DAYWALKER!!!

Madness part II

In the news today it was announced that a 13 year old boy has been given permission to wear "a stab-proof vest" when he goes to school, for fear of being attacked by a fellow schoolboy - because of a quarrel over a GIRL.

Isn't anyone warning the other guy that if he does something as stupid as stabs another person, he will get his ass thrown in jail? No! Instead they leave him to it, give his intended victim a stabproof vest, and hope for the best.

Also in the news, a headmaster has banned snowball fights and warned of punishment if you throw a snowball at another person "without his permission", because "being hit by a snowbally unexpectedly can be frightening and painful".

Free Food

Look around your average supermarket. How much of that food do you think it thrown out when it gets near to its sell-by date? When those mushrooms start to go a bit soft, when there is a crate-full of apples that are a bit bruised, when that cabbage gets a bit floppy. They just get thrown out, and they are still perfectly edible.

I've heard about people who raid supermarket bins for ages now, and they get tons of perfect food for nothing. Now there's a website dedicated to redistributing this waste (but good) food to people who cannot afford enough food for a healthy diet. http://www.fareshare.org.uk/ is the national organisation that works with over 100 food businesses to minimise food waste by providing practical solutions to help ensure that the maximum amount of 'fit for purpose' food is consumed wherever possible.

In 2005 2,000 tonnes of food was saved from being wasted, helping business reduced C02 emissions by 13,000 tonnes. This food was then redistributed, along with other food related support services, to a community food network of 300 organisations. This food contributed to over 3.3 million meals to 12,000 disadvantaged people each day in 34 cities and towns across the UK.

As well as also providing 250 work and volunteers placements last year, £5 million was saved by the network of local charities, which was reinvested into the community.

It is estimated that 4 million people in the UK cannot afford a healthy diet, with 1 in 7 people over 65 at serious risk of malnourishment. I'm glad that someone is doing something about it, but typical that it was an independent organisation that came up with this idea, and not our caring Goveernment.


You may also want to check out http://freegan.info/, a site Dedicated to Revealing Human Over-Consumption and Waste. Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, they avoid buying anything to the greatest degree they are able.

Seems to me like they should just have their own allotment and raise their own chickens though? Instead they raid skips and re-use products that we have thrown out, or eat food dumped by supermarkets that is still edible. But ultimately but re-using those GAP combats from the bin, or eating Asda's thrown-out fresh (intensively farmed) chicken legs, they are STILL consuming the foods and using the products produced by the society they disagree with ... however they are helping to reduce waste and sticking two fingers up at our wasteful society at the same time. it's a vicious circle, but if we didn't waste so much in the first place they'd not be doing it....

A WW2 Veteran speaks

I've been emailing a USAAF 95th Bomb Group B17 crew Veteran, discussing life and the universe. Our talk turned to US politics and the wars past and present. Here is his email in response to me sending him this link:

http://www.counterthink.org/018716.html

Very interesting comments, especially from the mouth of a living WW2 veteran
=====================================

Yes and no, but mostly no. I hear Mr. Slick talking, but I do not detect any real answers.

He seems to be on a kick that WWII was one of those good wars in which America set out to save English and European clowns for whom war was often a way of life. In fact, their war to end wars---WWI---did not prove to be meritorious on that premise.

I did not volunteer for WWII, not that may did, to bury the Axis. On the other hand, Japan was in our gun sights right from the start. No, we were just coming out of a depression with the war's assist. My chances, and millions of others, of finding work was nil. Add to this, too, the utter remote possibility of attending college. History is replete with examples of engaging in war to get peoples' minds off prevailing problems like depressions. Getting youth off the streets is another advantage of a good conflict. And, as we know, war certainly can get industry humming once again. WWII did all these things.

Roosevelt purposely put Japan is precarious positions economically and geographically to eventually defeat the ongoing, US sentiment for isolation. That is, he needed an excuse to back up his buddy-pal Churchill. You might say, in retrospect, both enjoyed a good war as adulated leaders.

By the way, I was not overly concerned with killing the so-called enemy, no, my objective was to save my own ass and return home. If the truth be known, maybe I only killed a few soldiers with most of my dastardly deeds against civilians.

Where is my Hyde Parks soap box when I need it? Hear!

Electioneering has been going on in this country ever since the Democrats lost. Their clarion call has been "We hate Bush" with all of its ramification. The hysterical left is completely out of control as is the media. Has Bush made mistakes. Of course, and I cannot think of any leader who has not. Where were those righteous people when Clinton was in office? If you do not recall, Willy-Billy Boy did not run his Bosnian conflict by Congress, but most Clinton-agreeable politicians are singing a different tune today.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, this country was ready for action with the deaths of only around 2,000, and the scuffle was thousands of miles away. Now, 9/11, with over 3,000 killed in our own backyard, it generates a big yarn especially with Democrats and many liberals.

The blatant negativity of power has always been with us, and I make no exceptions.

Cycle helmets rock

Yep I give a hearty thumbs up to the old Melon Helmets that us cyclists wear, and I encourage you ALL to wear one when you cycle - cos if I'd not had mine on last night I swear my skull would have been seriously split open and this morning I'd have been in hospital.

Big thanks to the ignorant blind TWAT who firstly blocked the cycle path lounging on his bike while chatting to a fluffy blonde, then even more Brownie points to him for deciding to cycle off without looking as I passed him. BANG and down I went. Swearing like a fishwife at him I got up, and he was awfully nice and apologetic and suitably sorry, but as I'd had the worst day of the year at work so far, I just got up, said I was OK then cycled off before he could see that I was blubbing like a pansy. Darn it I didn't even see his face to check whether he was fit or not.

I got home and sat and howled for half an hour, such was the crappiness of my day. Then this morning I witness a dad step out into the road holding the hand of his young son, right into the path of a car, which slammed on the brakes and narrowly missed them both. Dad didn't seem to notice or even look round, and neither did son. Way to go with the Highway Code guys.

Further along my journey I witness Stupid Student cycling along while texting. She wobbled dangerously as I passed her and by now I was so jumpy I nearly fell off again. I really wanted to just stick out my leg and kick her off her f*cking bike into the hedge.

So remember kiddies, you may look stupid with a huge plastic melon on your head but I'd rather look stupid than have a fractured skull or worse ....

Is It Just Me or Is Everything Shit?: The Encyclopedia of Modern Life

Yes this is the title of a new book now out, that gives a commentary on Modern Life. I've not ready it yet but I will probably peruse it very soon.

I heartily agree with the title. I made the mistake of buying the Sunday Times at the weekend (free Donnie Darko DVD) and for the first time in months, sat and read the paper. How f*cking depressed was I when I'd finished. Every page was crammed with stories on corruption, cheating, murder, shady Govts, America and it's dirty dealings, money being spent on the silliest of things, compensation cases and sue sue sue stories, Iraq, more Iraq, the ice caps melting and disrupting the Gulf Stream (next ice age is coming within my lifetime ARGH), stories of layred bureacracy within the BBC costing us upwards of £70k per day, of their paid-for trips to the World Cup for staff, commentators and all their hangers-on, that 27 year old who gunned down his family in the US then decided to fly home to see his mum "to ask what he should do" (FFS!), then of course, bird flu BIRD FLU BIRD FLU IS COMING WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE MASS HYSTERIA PANIC OH NO MEDIA GLORIFICATION! FFS if we just treated our animals PROPERLY then these diseases would not manifest themselves. If this wipes us all out (which I don't believe it will at all) then we thoroughly deserve it.

I spent the rest of the day trying to concentrate on positive things about our world - the (unspoiled) breathtaking countryside, rivers and scenery throughout the world (that has yet to be logged, farmed, polluted, stolen, fought over, or built on), the stillness of a misty morning lake as the sun rises, the beauty of music that can reduce the most hardened person to tears, the wonder of art (not the modern crap), an act of kindness to a stranger (that isn't followed by abuse or criticism or suspicion of being mugged), the feeling of being in the company of good friends, the fantastic buzz of driving a car around the a racetrack, the wonderful fizzy feeling inside you when you first kiss someone you are crazy about, scuba diving and seeing the beauty of the fragile world under our seas (again, before it is farmed, polluted, overfished and over-dived).

After all those thoughts had gone through my head I still found myself feeling very depressed about the way the world I live in is going. Because beautiful countryside, first kisses, good friends, and morning misty lakes will never change the rampant greed, corruption and consumerism that is devouring our sick and dying world. What hope have we got??? I'm rapidly rapidly losing faith. I also don't want to read a newspaper again for quite a while.

Romance

Well I got no cards. I didn't expect any. I never normally get them anyways! But looking at Valentines Day now makes me realise it's just the same as Christmas - another crass excuse to sell overpriced tat and cards to gullible idiots who think that only on one day of the year should they buy their sweetheart a present and tell them they love them.

Crap! You shouldn't need a dictum to tell you when to do that. Do it whenever you feel like it, any day of the year, every day if that's what you want. The time you spend with your loved one could be the very last time you see them - anything could happen - not to sound negative but it could ... so always tell them how you feel, not just on one ruddy day of the year!