and how do you say ‘Intellectually Challenged’ in one word?

I have often considered the words ‘and they have exactly the same vote as I’ to be the most offensive words I have ever written. But the previous statement must in turn be covered by its own caveat; in that most of those who are covered by that sweeping statement have not got the intellectual curiosity to be, themselves, offended.

Take one particular event, or rather non-event, in my immediate community within Durham City. The County Council produced a five-year Plan for the alleged improvement of our County, in terms of extra housing, roads, ‘green spaces’, predictions and expectations of new industry and businesses over the next five-ten years. As for the content of that plan, it produced over 3965 statements, of over 97% of which were partly or actively hostile. The level of comment or query, should have had,. in my own opinion, a response level in the tens of thousands, which goes to show how many people actually get involved in Local Government. However, this document was published to form the basis of changes which were proposed to alter the very nature of a substantial part of our once-cherished Green Belt, by building houses and roads all over it. Many other changes were proposed, and the whole plan is up for scrutiny by an Inspector. But my point in telling ATW readers about this Plan, which of course the County Council is extremely proud and protective, was also the subject of a ‘road-show’ exhibition, which was set up in community buildings and centres all over our County, and when this exhibition was set up , I wrote about it at that time on ATW, and the final paragraph went:-

The comment is the truth that we, as a community, get exactly the Local Government we deserve. An Exhibition on the Plan were held at Framwellgate Moor on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday 23^rd, and the room was thronged with interested people. A similar exhibition was held at the Laurel Avenue community centre in Gilesgate on the 24^th, the  following Thursday, and only two people, one of whom was myself, signed in by 7 p.m.

My first sentence, along with the caveat, should now be considered, especially in the light of this Court Case where a PCSO managed to get herself ‘airside’ at Gatwick, then told passengers ‘en route’ to their departure gates that there was a limit of £1,000 which they could take out of the country, and she would be confiscating the rest, which would be handed back upon their return. We should obviously condemn this woman PCSO, but should some level of blame not accrue to the strangely silent people who allowed themselves to be ‘conned’ out of their hard-earned holiday cash. Just imagine if some clown gets dressed up in a uniform, and tells members of the public to give away their money. What would you do, if such a statement or demand was made to you, on your way to board an aircraft?

Just on the slightly bigger side of things…

I have always been fascinated by the sea. Its power, its majesty, its simple dominance of all this planet’s puny dwellers. I sailed the oceans for seven-eight years when a young man, when the British Merchant Navy was still a major presence upon the  trade routes of the world; where you could confidently expect to locate the British ‘Red Duster’ hanging from the rear flagstaff of merchant vessels in virtually every major port the world over. But, time passes, and so does trade; but the vastness of the seas remains, and it is only those who have lived and worked on the sealanes of this world know the true power of the element on which we sailed.

I would give two examples of man’s ingenuity when it comes to taming the power and problems which face anyone who goes to sea today, and, espercially in the second instance, a true measure of how insignificant Man himself really is when it comes to attempting even to tame the mighty oceans.

Remember the lunacy which resulted in the near-sinking of the Costa Concordia, brought on solely by the stupidity and arrogance of one man, her Captain? The dead have been buried, and the captain brought before a court. That vessel has now been righted, and floats northwards at a majestic 2 n.m.p.h towards her final destination, the dock where she was built; and of course where she will be slowly and safely torn apart and demolished. But the ingenuity, the engineering and the persistence of the salvage crews needs a salute, and this is mine:-

But away from disaster, and towards new beginnings, I profess that one of the  projects which has always been high on my list of things to watch is the huge project to upgrade both Northern and Southern approaches to the Panama Canal. In Engineering terms, it is up there alongside such gargantuan projects as the Three Gorges Dam in China. The first photo shown is one taken as one of the new rolling gates approaches the ramp which leads towards the newly-excavated lock, and a view of the workmen gives some idea of how big the parts of this project really are.

 

The second is a panoramic view of the new locks as they in time will be, complete with the storage areas which will accept the water displaced or available, when the vessels enter or exit the Canal.

 

Never believe anything………..

………………….until it has been denied; officially.

That quotation, care of an Irish journalist named Claud Cockburn, says a great deal about the person, and the television station she worked for over five years which I write about today. The t.v. station is Russia Today, and the reporter’s name was Sara Firth. She resigned from her work as a tv reporter because she states she was disgusted at having to push ‘slanted’ reports over the massacre of innocents who flew, unknowing of their fate, on Malaysian Airways MH17.

She stated she resigned in disgust because said reports being run by the station gave her a ‘kick in the stomach” and ‘disrespected the facts’, prompting her to hand in her notice. She  said it was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ after growing increasingly frustrated during her five years as an employee.

Now apart from the fact that Russia Today is, and always has been, a totally-paid-up  member of the President Putin fan club, bought by the Kremlin; we must examine this female reporter’s beliefs and statements, both from the present and from the past. If, as she states, just about all news stories and commentary was slanted to place a Kremlin- and Putin-friendly viewpoint across the news-screens of the world, how is it that it took her five long years before she ‘saw the light’, and resigned?

Did this articulate and well-educated woman just have a sudden ‘Damascene Conversion’ over one lie too much, after speaking the Kremlin’s propaganda and slush for five years? She states that she was ‘increasingly frustrated’ and Firth also claimed the news organization has promoted Russian propaganda for years. The network uses young, obedient reporters for big, controversial stories — the less-experienced journalists are more likely to stay on message, she said, “The second you start to question or report honestly then you’re a problem.” Still, she respects many of her co-workers. She said many of them tell the truth, and have tried to fight the system while keeping their jobs on the inside.

Or did she finally decide that she should never have commenced working for a Putin- and Kremlin-backed t.v. station which has been routinely laughed at for the ludicrous manner in which it shamelessly followed the Russian-line, no matter what the actual facts might dictate?

 

That last query, of course, might well be aimed at another broadcaster which we are all, unfortunately, well-acquainted with? Answers on a used postcard, please.

 

Closed shop? Or closed minds?

Here’s hoping that an enlarged hard-copy of this article by Owen Paterson, the now former Environment Secretary is securely fixed in a prominent position in No. 10 Downing Street’s Cabinet Room.

Of course, it would never happen, as the present occupant of No. 10, besides thinking that sacking good politicians and replacing them with allegedly-well-dressed women will ensure his own re-election as Tory leader and Prime Minister; has his own reasons for the sacking of this hugely-popular politician, whose crimes, as far as I can tell, are to stand up to so-called environmental pressure groups, chop the lunatic policies of the bent quango-crat Chris Smith regarding not dredging rivers which have been dredged for decades; and instigate the cull of disease-ridden badgers so that our dairy herds may live free of tuberculosis.

Number please?

I don’t know if any loyal reader has checked out the ‘nightmare in Comcast-land’ where an ordinary American bloke who has had a Comcast broadband connection decided that he and his family wanted to trade away, get another service provider, and break with Comcast completely. To check out this truly-Orwellian conversation, go to this link, and it will be revealed in all its awesome clarity. But the point, made later on any number of Commentary blogs, radio & tv spots, is that the Comcast bloke was literally or seemingly only trying to do his job, which is that of a ‘Customer Retention Representative’. Seems as though Comcast takes the nightmare of losing customers rather seriously, and every CRE gets a bonus for customers retained, for ‘milking services’ presumably, but, if the CRE does not show success, his number comes up on a monthly ‘debit board’, and he either loses his bonus, or gets placed on a Comcast ‘watch list’; which is presumably just about the same as the modern version of Long John Silver’s ‘Black Spot’.

Now I recently bought a new ‘smart-ish’ phone, and signed up with a different Service provider. Now when we in Gt. Britain wish to move from one mobile provider to another, you apply for a Port Authorisation Code, and then you can take your number, and your business, wherever you wish. So I contacted Orange, because I had been with them until alerted that they were much more expensive than others. So I called Orange, and asked for my PAC, and this bloke says, “Who are you moving to?”

Now I don’t normally get all uptight with people in call-centres, mainly because they usually work from  screen menus, but because this clown wouldn’t leave off asking where and why I was placing my mobile business elsewhere, I abruptly told him to ‘f*** off’, give me my PAC number, and cease pissing around.

I would only note that Comcast is seeking FCC approval to take over Time Warner, and wonder if the FCC is noticing they are allowing one big bully to get ever larger!

 

It all depends who is talking about what

Listed to  a slot on BBC Today this morning where this retired policeman was quoted that he was certain various senior colleagues frowned upon his attempts to prosecute the killers of Stephen Lawrence, and alleged that these attempts probably were also corrupt.  These remarks, first aired on Newsnight,  were broadcast in every half-hourly news bulletin, and of course, as he was attacking the Metropolitan Police, and also were in aid of one of the BBC’s favourite people, a black youngster who was struck down by white men before (sarcasm alert) attaining approximately the same status as Martin Luther King (black awareness), or Fillipo Brunelleschi (architecture); they were given the widest publicity and scrutiny.

Not too much publicity or notice was given by the same BBC editors of the earlier part of the same interviewwhere he stated that he (the retired policeman) been removed from a earlier enquiry into abuse in Lambeth childrens’ homes as he was asking too many questions about people in ‘high places’.

The thing which puzzles me is the query as to why Retired Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll didn’t raise seven sorts of Cain in an attempt to gain justice for the children who were, allegedly, being abused, instead of meekly keeping quiet and looking after his own skin and, of course, job?

…in sickness, and in health…..

 

 

Before posting on a subject which is worthy of at least some discussion, before being cast into the cess-pool from which it has arisen, I thought I would lighten the atmosphere by posting a photo of what must be the most enchanting small child’s smile published this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long-awaited bill being published by the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has parallels with the 1967 Abortion Act by placing responsibility for authorising the action in the hands of two doctors.

legalise assisted dying

upholding the sanctity of human life without regard to suffering caused in the process

“ethical turning point”

be promoting anguish and pain, the very opposite of a Christian message of hope.”

the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” should not mean prolonging suffering.

in the face of the reality of needless suffering.”

In writing about this pernicious, dangerous and illiberal Assisted Dying Bill, I would attempt to explain my thoughts. The quotations, taken from people who support this Bill, do not state the truth about what is proposed. The Bill is written and introduced to change the Law. Ignore all the emotional rubbish held within those quotations, the supporters of this Bill want, wish and work towards one thing, and one thing only :-

 

Euthanasia!

I knew the girl I met was for me some ten seconds after we first saw each other, but, upon my return after my last trip to sea, I laid siege until she agreed to marry me.  We were gloriously, blissfully happy, our family grew and blossomed; until I was finally made aware that my beloved wife was seriously ill, and I had to have her committed. My wife of now some forty-seven years has been suffering from the effects of schizophrenia for some forty-three of those years. For many years, after she was released to me from the mental hospital where she was treated, she was back to some 95-97.5% of the woman whom I fell in love with, all those years ago in one chance evening at the Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square; but things went downhill some ten or twelve-odd years ago.

She now sits upstairs on her bedside, anxiously awaiting my help for even the slightest move to swivel across to her commode. She depends upon me for everything, and I would be a strange caricature of a man if I ever deserted her. My philosophy of life is now, and has been for many years; ‘you play the hand you are dealt’, and this is what I do for the woman I love. But what might happen to my love if I should die before her? Being totally dependent upon others for everything, and I do mean everything; more than likely she would be headed straight for a care facility, would she not be a prime target for these do-gooders who believe firmly that they know what is best for one who cannot articulate her needs and wishes?

I once visited an old-aged people’s home/complex in Islington to help a mate of mine who was compiling an electrical tender document, and I will be honest when I state that I have never witnessed anything more dispiriting in my entire life. I entered the main room/hall of the home, and there must have been at least seventy or eighty elderly people seated there, but the strange thing was the fact that they were all seated at seventy or eighty different angles to one another; there were two televisions blaring away at opposite corners of the room, no-one was watching either, and this was the first time that I had ever witnessed what is called the ‘Thousand-mile-stare’, where the person’s eyes are focussed over a huge distance away. The staff could safely be described as uniformly useless, as I gathered when talking to the one helpful staff member, a maintenance bloke, who simply sniffed when asked his opinion of his fellow workers, then replied, ‘when they aren’t in ever-extended meetings discussing how much they would not be doing, they are forever looking after themselves; with not much time left for the poor sods in the armchairs and beds’! I spotted one lady, seated in a wheelchair, trapped in the space between a wall and a folding door. She had been left by the ‘caring’ staff member, and forgotten as breakfast had been served, and no-one missed her, until an outsider arrived and gently wheeled her out of her confinement. She was so pathetically grateful to me, a stranger for helping her. Needless to state, I made my own feelings pretty plain to the management, but I don’t believe that my anger even registered!

Reference is made in one of the earlier quotations to the Abortion Act of 1967. I would simply remind readers that one of the ruling guidelines in 1967 was that two doctors should examine and confer with the pregnant woman before agreeing and signing to that abortion procedure. Those guidelines are now so loose that a NURSE can authorise an abortion.  I would remind ATW readers that, in just four years, there have been 731801 babies, foetuses; call them what you will, killed quite legally in this so-called civilised country of ours! Just consider what a bunch of politicians and their fellow bottom-feeding compatriots could do once the Euthanasia Bill becomes Law?

The Assisted Dying Bill, which in reality should be renamed the ‘Euthanasia Bill’ or the even more explanatory The Inconvenience Bill’ or the  ‘Let us get rid of the Old, the Ill, the Insane, the Sufferers from incurable and painful Diseases, those who alarm us by their very longevity, and the Memories of what faces us all Bill’ is a shameful and destructive piece of legislation, and we, along with the dangerous do-gooder Clowns who propose and back this tawdry attempt to change, by euphemism alone, the settled Law, should be ashamed that Legislation as bad, corrupt and disgraceful as this Bill undoubtedly is, even passes across the threshold of the House of Lords in these troubled times.

 

There, but for luck, or the grace….go I.

I often ‘click’ on links just to see what they hold in the way of explorers the world over, and it is rare when I am not rewarded by an item whjich displays the true foolishness of the human condition. Some amuse me, some annoy me intensely, but some times, perhaps too rarely, I come across an article or opinion piece which does make you stop, and think, and even occasionally say, as does my heading, “There but…….”.

So I would ask  readers to perhaps ‘click’ to find an article by a once-affluent lady, who found that sometimes you do have to swallow your pride, just to get by; before grasping the ladder back up once more.

 

I know just how she felt.

and it is all Cameron’s fault!

An open letter to David Cameron & Ruth Davidson (Scots Tory leader)

I am in receipt of your begging letter asking for donations to aid the anti-separation side of the Scots Independence referendum vote.

From being a life-long Tory believer and thinker; your craven, homosexual-friendly actions in regard to the so-called ‘gay marriage’ law, no doubt fuelled by your homosexual friends from Eton, has turned me into a firm apostle for UKIP. Your actions and drive to change the law so that a bunch of queers might be ‘equal’ gave me, and many, many thousands like me, the final impetus to change our political affiliations, and alter the very way in which we sought expression of our democratic principles.

You ask for a donation to aid Scots Conservatives to maximise the anti-separation vote on referendum day. You ask that I ‘give generously’!

I happily state that I would not donate the sweat from my socks towards any programme endorsed by your slimy Party, which consists of fellow travellers, clowns, rich people trying to get richer, and stalwarts of my generation who have not yet reached breaking point with the Tories, but have stayed because of the ties which bind, and of the good manners which have stayed them from telling you the truth about your lies.

If the Referendum states that Scotland will be independent, so be it, but most of the blame will rest with you, because you forgot that people, ordinary people like me, have very, very long memories!

It all depends if they are, or wish to be

In the true spirit of journalism, I had a look at the effects of things similar to Google’s European operations having to comply with EU court rulings on privacy.

Some wonderful things can be highlit by such searches, but the funniest, and possibly the most unwelcome, result of a request for anonymity can be seen here:-

 

1. The Boring Home: Aaron and Christine Boring of Franklin Park Pa. claimed that Google Maps’ Street View feature violated their privacy, devalued their property and caused them mental suffering by posting images of a private road in front of their house. The Borings said that the images of their home must have been taken from their long driveway, which is labeled “Private Road.”

I would have suggested a change of name.

A strange but pertinent fact regarding these requests for ‘anonymity’ is that, by simply swapping your search engine from Google UK to Google.com, all such requests are nullified, because Google.com lives, alive and kicking, in America, the ‘Land of the Free’!

As the Guardian states, it is fairly obvious the Google doesn’t like the ruling from the Court, so it notes that not only do all the stories still exist on the various websites linked, but now not shown, Google itself has begun a small but telling addtion to its Home pages; as if you check down the right-hand base of the screen you are directed to the American home page, and there you will see, as I pointed out earlier, all the links which those shifty people are trying to hide.