In between two heartbeats

I was listening to the news broadcasts regarding the loss of the AirAsia jet, when one item caught my attention; it was the fact that at least one of the bodies found at the crash scene was wearing a life-jacket. This means that there was some warning given the passengers by crew members; they knew of a problem, and they reacted by issuing the order to don lifejackets.

Those same lifejackets which 99.999% of all airline passengers routinely ignore during the two-minute safety lecture given at the start of every airline flight. We’ve all done it; we’ve all wished that those stewards and stewardesses would give over telling us how to get off the plane ‘in case of an emergency’; we’ve all tuned out those people who are, after all, only doing their jobs, whilst looking at a bunch of heads all busy doing anything but paying attention to something which just may save their lives.

When much younger, I too, ignored those warnings, despite being given absolute proof that those airborne dangers are just a heartbeat away!

and all was well at the Beeb; anywhere else, they don’t wanna’ know!

When I heard of the BBC plans for the Today Programme ‘Guest Editors’ over the holiday period, I almost knew what coming before the first programme, featuring the Beeb’s favourite M.P., Speaker John Bercow came on air; and I was not disappointed. Every pointed question was never asked, any hint of dissension from the Party line was never aired, and this creeping disgrace to civilised Government spouted his thoughts unhindered by challenge, query or even mild surprise.

But worse was, unfortunately, to follow. We were given a verbal and mental battering, by Today’s ‘guest editor’ this morning, on the true delights of Lesbian, Gay, BiSexual and Trandgender lifestyles by this strange woman; the struggles of the LBGT (or, for more unworldy readers; homosexual) movement as they grasp ‘Equality’, or ‘Diversity’ or whatever they are musing over this weekend. We heard of the struggles of allegedly confused youngsters as they entered their first unsupervised home, and how they abandoned this security because they had not been, wait for it; trained as to the function of ordinary things in a home,and went to live on the proceeds of crime on the streets. We even heard this Charity leader state that all youngsters who were still ‘confused’ about their identity should be kept in comfort by the State until their 25th birthday: and he was being serious!

When I was far younger than today, the adjective ‘gay’ was just that, an adjective. A definition, if one was sought, was to be carefree, happy, unburdened by worries or tribulation. HMS Gay Charger, a fast Motor GunBoat, was actually commanded by Nigel Lawson, a former Chancellor. Listening through the turgid unburdening of ‘how happy’ they were once they had ‘come out of the closet, and embraced their ‘gay awareness’ a common theme or opinion emerged in my mind; which, put rather simply, was that for a group of people who had now, ‘found out who they all were’, and had at last come to terms with their confused ideas of sexuality, etc., etc., and so on ‘ad infinitum’; for such a ‘Gay Group’, they came across, to this observer, as rather sad and silly.

and just in time to ruin it all………

At my ever-advancing time of life, when I had thought I had truly seen the worst of all human lies, chicanery, and of self-serving falsehoods of the worst kind, we now are able to read, in all their tarnished glory, the words of ex-prime minister Tony Blair as he bestows his words of wisdom upon an awaiting and eagerly expectant world; when he talks and ruminates upon the Democratic Process.

And the worst part about this truly cynical and vastly-deluded person is that he believes that he was doing the right thing; all along!

Swing low, sweet chariot….

Human Rights Watch, Reprieve, Iran Human Rights, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Harm Reduction International and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation, all noisy do-gooders together; all chant in unison about the dreadful Regime in Iran, and their habit of executing drug smugglers.

Now I haven’t got a great deal of affection for the mullahs who lead Iran, and I definitely dislike their way of executing homosexuals for being homosexuals. I am no great fan of shirt-lifters-anonymous, nor of the female equivalent; but I would maybe ban them from all public places, and if they wish to parade their ‘lifestyles’, or experiment with whatever it is they actually do, they should be allowed to do this only on, say, Gruinard Island; or else somewhere equally remote and unfriendly.

But when it comes to the treatment of drug smugglers, I am all with the Iranian Regime, for I am firmly of the belief that a drug trafficker is no better than a murderer, because the slow death caused by their product is just as certain as a bullet, or a knife. Hanging is really too good for these murderous clowns, but the problem is that their employers, the money men, keep well off the trafficking routes, so they will hardly ever be trapped.

Rapist; thief; liar; fraudster; bogus asylum seeker………Good enough!

British Citizenship & Passport eligibility >>> Tesco shopping list

There are more checks done on an online shopping list than those applied to the issue of a British Passport.

And just to make things worse, guess where the people work who decide who gets a British Passport?

Liverpool

 

Moreover, far too much reliance was placed on self-declaration by applicants so unless an applicant declared financial problems or that they had practised tax avoidance and benefit fraud, no other checks were made to verify this. In some cases, applicants who had very poor immigration histories over long periods, including during the qualifying period for naturalisation, were granted citizenship. The poor histories included having no leave to enter or remain for long periods, working illegally and absconding.

“The granting of British citizenship is a profoundly significant step for both the individual and the UK,” said Vine. “Therefore, I was concerned to find that nationality casework [part of UKVI] had not struck the right balance between this and the need to scrutinise applications thoroughly to ensure that decisions to grant British citizenship were evidence-based. UKVI guidance which allowed case workers to disregard evasion of immigration control during the qualifying period, where there was no other evidence to cast doubt on an applicant’s good character, had resulted in a ‘blanket approach’ being adopted.”

 

Partisan is, as Partisan does

When the level, non-partisan, and genuinely sympathetic report regarding the allegations of serial torture from Senator Feinstein’s committee was published (Sorry about the sarcasm) the usual suspects collectively cleared their throats, and unanimously condemned this bunch of criminals masquerading as employees of the CIA; for their terrible and illegal approach towards people whose only real ambition in their lives was to kill Americans. I would have thought that the first thing any committee, intent upon carving a way through the lies and serial attempts at covering up the truth about the nasty things which were alleged to have been done to these men, all of whom were seemingly arrested whilst on holiday in terror-strewn lands, would have been to interrogate the CIA leaders, ex-leaders and CIA staff who were engaged in these alleged acts of torture.

The rebuttal, shown on the website, is fairly damning to the Majority report, produced without a single interview from any senior or ex-senior CIA staffer. Reading through a small selection of rebuttal documents shows that both the White House and the Administration were briefed, aware, and approved of the techniques used to gain intelligence about people who were planning to kill Americans.

I applaud the CIA for their stance, but of course fully expect the Obama Administration to condemn the CIA, because after all, those nasty Republicans knew what was being done in America’s name, and all those orange jump-suit detainees were all completely innocent; well nearly all, except possibly one or even two bad apples, and they were picked up by mistake, possibly on jay-walking charges.

and the sewage-pit to the left? That’s Kabul.

We were told that our Forces were leaving Helmand, Camp Bastion, and the blood-stained sands of that slag-heap masquerading as the country of Afghanistan.

We were told here, and then there, and finally over there, that we were going; and then, finally, we left, but not without the final measure of corporate military bullshit being spewed by a man who really ought to have kept his mouth shut.

Brigadier Robert Thomson, the most senior British officer on the base, said he was delighted with how the manoeuvre took place.

“This is not an evacuation,” he said. “I am standing here without body armour and we are going at walking pace. This is a deliberately measured transfer of power to the Afghans.”

That statement was made on the 27^th October 2014.

We now read in the Sunday Times that the new Prez. of Afghanistan, knowing that he doesn’t have any sort of an air force, despite the $65 billions pumped into his shambles of a nation over the thirteen years since we went in and kicked the Taliban out, has repeatedly asked Cameron to send the Typhoons, the Tornadoes and the helicopters back in, because the Afghan National army is absolutely useless, with levels of corruption at all-time high levels, and desertion to the Taliban ranks seen as a good option.

So despite those other calls on the 40-year-old Tornados, and the lack of pilots for the Typhoons; 453 dead British just isn’t enough, and that sad number will rise, because that prick Cameron can’t say ‘no’ to his muslim buddies in Kabul.

the Agony………and the Memory

I shall be busy with Family duties tomorrow, duties involving two of my Grandsons; which of course makes tomorrow important to me. Far too busy to give due accord to a day which changed the history of the World, so; a gentle and subtle reminder of America’s strengths, along with her weaknesses, in today’s convoluted and turbulent times.

From agony:-

 

 

 

To a statement that America will prevail, whilst always remembering:

 

 

…………..almost despite the presence of an academic liberal at the helm; mainly because America is an idea, which cannot be trashed by a President who got elected mainly because he was black, not because of what he promised, or what he proposed.

 

He loves me, ***@@!!*, he loves me not!

I write about things which intrigue me; I write, sometimes, of the joy of a Family, of the simple wonder of a small grandson’s hand clutching my finger, and of the implicit trust of moments such as those. I also write of the disgust in which I hold politicians who have diluted and trashed the very idea of that same Family life, and of Marriage. I write in vehement complaint of things political, where our great nation has been betrayed by lesser men who pursue a political viewpoint, and of the truly lethal outcomings of that betrayal. I sometimes mischievously write to stimulate argument; and relish the bellicose outbursts from those minds who would speak against me, without ever either knowing me, or coming close enough to form another opinion.

I hardly ever write about sport, and sporting matters; mainly because I just do not understand the tribal urge which ‘follows’ a team, or a single exponent of any particular sporting endeavour, I just cannot fathom the thought process which brings people to their feet, shouting and shrieking for either joy, or vengeance, because of a particular shot, or move, or kick. But I do write about human nature, and the crass stupidities of people in the ‘sporting world’ who also inhabit the headlines because of their fame.

So the NFL player Ray Rice, who is, apparently, a gifted athlete and a star in his chosen sport, looses his temper with his wife, and beats her senseless in a hotel elevator. He is then promptly suspended from his team, and eventually fired.

The wife insisted that there had been no further instances of abuse since the footage surfaced in September, and that her husband’s judgement the night of the assault had been skewed by alcohol. “He said he was terrified. He was in such shock that this had just happened and he didn’t know how to function at that point.”

Nonetheless, she reaffirmed her support for her husband, claiming that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t tell the truth when he said Ray Rice was “ambiguous” about hitting her in an elevator.

“We know it’s going to take some work,” Janay told NBC’s Matt Lauer. “So I think once he shows them who he is and they reach out to people here, and they find out the things that he’s done, then I think it’s definitely good … At the end of the day, he’s a football player and that’s what they should be really be focused on, because he’s proven himself as a football player for seven years. There’s never been a question on what he can do on the field.”

So he beats her up, and knocks her unconscious, and the next thing; she announces that she is ‘standing by her man’, and all will be snowdrops in the spring!

Do these people inhabit the same Galaxy as us?