Thursday 26 May 2011

Barack Obama seeks Nick Griffin at BNP rally.

And why should the title and picture have anything to do with the content.  This is politics!

The Patriot Act

It is actually the USA PATRIOT Act and stands for (can you believe the fun and games these people entertain) Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.  What a lot of fun.  I bet those guys are good at crosswords.  So why piss about with a very serious subject like this.  It is because to call it what it is would be too obvious and revealing.  It is Increased Detection Intended to Oppose Terrorism by Legally Authorised Waffle.  Oops that acronymizes to IDIOT LAW.  What the IDIOT LAW does is to increase powers by law enforcement agencies to detain, deport, and spy on anyone.  Admittedly it is qualified by saying anyone suspected of "terrorism-related acts".  Wanking?  Maybe.  Millions of little half people are destroyed and with the perverse justification given by legal beagles it is not too far-fetched to imagine they could construct a convoluted obfuscation of intellectual spaghetti to justify that one.  When they vote on whether to extend the Patriot Act for another four years they are expected to vote on it without being able to examine it because, for security reasons you understand, some of it remains secret.  Now that really is democracy working well.  I'm not too bothered about this because bullies will be bullies and there is little in the short term you can do about that but what does worry me is that lovely man Barack Obama.  He is so nice.  He is so good looking, so fit, so suave and sophisticated, intelligent, charming and, damn it, he's also of Irish decent!

I listened to his speech at to the UK Parliament at Westminster Hall and I lapped up every word of it.  98% of it was thoroughly agreeable.  The problem is, as we all know, liars, the best of them, are very hard to detect.  And you are not going to become President of America if you are a crap liar.  It's not that I am so cynical as to imagine that everything he says must be a lie but he, like so many politicians, says what he believes is the good stuff that other people, and even possibly himself, want to believe.  But you cannot uphold freedom and democracy with clandestine phone tapping and voting on invisible laws.  On the one hand they support, even promote whistle blowing but when someone does it to them they scream in rage that he should be assassinated.  That's what I mean by lying.

I believe in free speech and you won't catch me booing and jeering at Nick Griffin.  You don't find me going along with the hysterical applause at the killing of Osama bin Laden.  I listen to what Nick Griffin has to say and give it some consideration.  An awful lot of what he says is good stuff.  A lot makes sense and a lot of it I don't happen to agree is a good approach to running a country.  I listen to Obama and most of what he says makes sense.  But it is not philosophically consistent and I don't happen to believe him on the grounds of the evidence so far.  I listen to what the Pope says and read his speeches and his philosophy and I heartily agree with most of what he says but it is still bullshit because he doesn't believe it.  He might wish it were true but that is where we depart.  I believe all people are equal - he doesn't.

Sunday 22 May 2011

Spain is just another one.

When I was at school I did not understand how Christian moralist teachers and the rest of them could tell children that pushing people around was immoral and to enforce compliance they would use corporal punishment.  That along with other contradictory values, lying and threats (which is terrorism).  It really did confuse me and I think I am still confused.  Weird since I also think I can see what is going on.  But this seems to be a far deeper problem.  Let me see if I can put this briefly.  I know I am in a trap but in spite of that I remain in it.  So what do I have to do to unglue myself?

Having said that I am left looking at the world at large and I see the utter charade of the monitory system, the blatant farce of the democratic system, the overt contradictions over values like freedom of the press, the right to peacefully protest etc, and the current  unsustainable course we are on.

Then there are the protests in Spain.  I can't name all the other protests in America, Britain, France, Greece, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen but it is all part of the same thing in my view.  I was watching a report on Al Jazeera about the protests in Spain and they provided a few sound bites from people in the protest.  I can't recall the quotes verbatim but two which were interestingly both from women were effectively: "This is happening all over the world.  It is a global revolution." and "I am not political this is a conscience issue.  It is about how we want to live and where we want to get to."

I think the current model of leaders ruling by effective trickery and forceful control has to be over.  I've said it before but failing that what else is there?  There is no future this way.  So it ends.  The hope is that most of humanity can transform to a better more empathetic, supportive model of operation.

And do I care.  Not so much now.  I am in pain, depressed, and someone has bashed my car.  I have no money to repair it and when it finally gives up that is it.  I walk.  Since my legs are failing me I don't see how I get to the "local" Tesco to carry the food back.  Hopefully the process of starvation will put me in a trance like state of numbness so that I can die without too much distress.  But I can't do that because my daughter needs me for a few years yet.  So I remain so distressed I cannot sleep which is killing me.  I told you I was in a trap.  No amount of forcing myself to go for walks, cut down on the smoking, finding things to do, seems to slow down the relentless decline.  And I have "armchair" studied psychology, counselling, sociology etc and I really do conclude that it is the result of my sociopathic father and his subservient hysterical vindictive wife.

Why am I taking this all the way from world affairs to a personal diatribe of misery?  I guess because I see the world's population in the same trap.  One might argue this is my subjective interpretation which could reasonably be called bias.  I sit and wonder if it is bias or if it is resonant insight.  I know it is not simply bias because I have always seen this dilemma.  I know that when I have been out of this personal tar pit (that I slipped back into three years ago) things were looking better for me but I could still see the inherent catastrophe in the world.  So I think I am just more bitter and angry than I might be if I weren't trapped myself.

Curiouser and curiouser!

So there has been a significant attack on the military navy air base in Karachi by the Taliban.  It is interesting that they are still calling them terrorists.  I thought when soldiers attacked soldiers it was called war and that is all sanitized and decent civilised behaviour with rules and codes of conduct.  It is not terrorism.  It couldn't be terrorism or the US and the UK would simply be terrorists and that couldn't possibly be the case because they are committed to defeating terrorism wherever it exists.

I have a little thought going on in my head and it is about who knew about Osama living in Pakistan.  Knowing how furtive and clandestine the US (and all other governments) are I wonder if Osama was "in hiding" by some agreement such that the "war" against terror could continue.  I am wondering if the US didn't break that little agreement by killing him.  For me this goes a long way to making more sense of all the different reactions from various countries especially Pakistan's reactions.  Had they not known Osama was there I think they would have shown more signs of surprise and more acceptance that their allies had found him.  Had they known he was there but be hiding that information from the US their reaction would have been a bit more ballistic.  If they knew that he was there and that the US knew he was there and they were all keeping it a secret they would be stuck in an impossible dilemma.  Surprise and agreement would have to be feigned and, er, um, anger at the transgression of sovereign territory would have to be feigned too.  Of course the Taliban would be furious at the double crossing Americans and would thrash about knowing that the Pakistanis were fools to have believed the US enough to not have hidden him better.  But, like all of us, the anger really reveals their anger at themselves.  And the Americans.  What about them?  If they thought the Pakistani's seriously didn't know about this guy would they have popped in and killed him like that?  Was the risk of Pakistan's reaction just a tad too great?  It just doesn't feel right.  But if they were treacherously ratting on the secret agreement then they would have confidence that Pakistan couldn't have a strong aggressive response.  Because they are tainted with guilt too.  Yes this is looking more plausible all the time.  Hence Pakistan waving it's fist around in feigned anger by saying it won't tolerate anything like this again.

Chocolate

You can buy chocolate on the internet from any of these places.  I have munched my way through quite a lot of chocolate this morning.  I couldn't sleep.  That is very common.  I got one hour of sleep.  So I remembered I had some chocolate and wondered if it might help.  It sometimes does.  But it didn't.  I just got fatter.  That's a laugh.  I am like a shriveled stick with veins.  And they hurt.  The veins that is.  Which reminds me; Sam (the tree) is very ill.  He's losing all his leaves.  So I thought I would write more and more pages on the web site and on this blog if necessary mentioning chocolate in an attempt to get more traffic through my affiliate links to chocolate.  Maybe this is a bit of over kill.  I spoke to my father this morning.  That corpse that moves.  Well he started it.  He said "Good morning" in his arrogant way.  So I said, somewhat sarcastically "You're bright and cheerful this morning."  "As I usually am." he replied.  He's a bloody liar.  Anyway I decided to pursue this a bit further.  There was menace in my soul.  "Do you believe in free will?" I asked.  He had to ask what I meant.  "You know: Free will.  Like we have choices."  "It depends what you mean."  I am gasping with frustration at this point.  But I continued and referred to the long standing philosophical quandary of free will and determinism.  He said he didn't know what I was talking about.  I will remind the reader that he is an arrogant pretentious pseudo-intellectual pillock of society.  So I asked him if he knew what logic was.  He said he'd heard of it but couldn't say exactly what it was.  I wanted to hit him at this stage.  Anyway I explained that the question of free will and determinism is basically whether we have free choice or is everything determined in a Newtonian clockwork cause-effect kind of way.  "We are all products of our circumstances." he said.  What a bastard.  He is playing games.  Effectively because I can't see it.  He is moralistic and judgmental and Anglican.  He is horribly condescending and sanctimonious.  He is arrogant in the extreme.  And now he says we are all products of our environment because if he admits we have choice he admits we have culpability and he knows I will blame him for his cruel behaviour.  (In retaliation for all the blame and culpability he constantly heaps on me.)  He might then get another mug of coffee all over his right wing newspaper.  I am exaggerating my frustration because I am too exhausted to care really but he went on to say "I have been very lucky really."  At this point I realise he is coming back with an attack.  he goes on to say that if he hadn't been so lucky I wouldn't have existed.  I had to point out that was really nice for him and not so nice for me.  I left.  That bastard.  He acts all innocent to the point I almost believe he doesn't realise what he is doing.  But the evidence is in my face.  So I will have to plot something more devastating.  Don't forget the chocolate :)

(You can buy love hearts too!)

<-- Read the message on the can!  It's amazing how many people miss it :(

Thursday 19 May 2011

Children Services Abuse

We get our allotted time on this planet and I have had way more than half of mine.  I feel as if I am in the early evening of my life although I am so exhausted I might just fall asleep a bit early.  On reflection I see a strange convoluted feedback entanglement of intercommunication between humans.  Oppression!  It may just be my bag but the likes of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest all illustrate an undercurrent in the human psyche which disturbs me.

I was brought up on a diet of deception and lies, emotional manipulation and brutality.  I really struggled to understand it and my overall conclusion is that when humans are abused it screws up their ability to perceive reality correctly (or at least functionally successfully).  There is a lovely book called Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart which does an incredible job of almost inducing a paradigm shift as you read it.  But primarily it indicates on an intellectual level the convolutions of our cultural perception.  It is a must read for the thinking/feeling human.  Then there is the extensive research and insight provided by Arthur Janov in his book The Biology of Love which illustrates that what we call emotions and thoughts are all driven by the underlying biology.  So mess with the underlying biology of the neurological system and it is messed up.  It doesn't work at its best.

There is also a lovely book by Dr Seuss that has been turned into an equally lovely film called Horton Hears A Who! where Horton repeatedly asserts that "a person's a person, no matter how small".

Whether there is a moral angle to this or not is not my concern but humanity has the capacity to mimic what it is like to be another person.  Oppression rather perverts that and although people want to appear as if they are thinking about the other they are doing it out of the need to survive other people's moral judgement and the consequence is a kind of inside out-ness.  They think they are talking about the other and they sound as if they are talking about the other but they are really talking about themselves.  All of that is for another dissertation but the point of this post is to raise the issue of abuse.

Abuse is abuse no matter how small.

By ignoring, belittling, dismissing or even tolerating abuse it cascades.  Like the slag heap collapse at Aberfan in 1966.  The slag is constantly slipping.  Thousands of little slips, hundreds of bigger chains of slippage until eventually one tiny slip triggers another which triggers another and the whole slag heap comes down in a torrent of death and destruction smothering the school and killing 116 children.

Every time a teacher is abusive to a child it is part of the bigger groundswell.  All abuse is abuse no matter how small.  My friend Dave (you know - that friend of a friend), a single parent, and his only daughter have had a tough time of things for many years.  Their life is a wreck because of other people's abuse.  Just because his wonderful daughter became ill with appendicitis a cascade of abuse was set in motion and the effect on them was far worse than it might have been because they were already weakened by years of abuse.  It could be called the last straw.  But Dave has had enough and he has decided to make a mountain out of this mole hill (because it is all part of the mountain) and he wants to expose the dreadful behaviour of the Children Services and their part in this cascading abuse that is our culture.

In themselves the manipulation, the prejudice, the lies, intimidation and abuse by the Children Services might be small compared with the security forces in Libya but to Dave and his daughter they are significant and damaging.  The only way to stop the disasters of abuse across the globe is to stop all abuse when it is still nugget sized and manageable.

Toxic Drums has decided to host, a duly redacted (nice fashionable phrase), account of this encounter with the Children Services under the title "Children Services Abuse".  Some of it is very detailed and indulgent but sometimes needs to be in order to dissect the minutia of what is going wrong.  Some of it is more entertaining, harsh or even amusing in places like the angry letter to the Manager or the damning letter to the complaints department.  The introduction is a good place to get the gist of what this is about.

Although the dates and names and places are all falsified (for the time being) they are consistent and the situation is currently evolving.  Of course it will be kept up to date with each new evolution of events.  What I would appreciate is any viral spread of this article.  Post it, Facebook it, Twitter it, just link to it.  I want it to get to the right people and to find the people who are also concerned with this subject either in particular or in general.  I want to make a noise and to seriously ruffle someone's feathers.  I am angry!

I welcome any kind comments, criticisms or contacts with reciprocal love and warmth but unkind remarks will be returned like shattered glass through cyberspace to slice your virtual jugular.

Please keep in touch ;)

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Integrated Children's System (ICS

The Integrated Children's System (ICS) is a piece of information technology (IT) developed to assist in the social welfare of children in the UK. It is a great idea and a great fiasco but it is still in place. A government report deemed the system "not fit for purpose" in 2008. Either on a common sense level or on a scientific interpersonal neurobiological level it is a malicious and dangerous piece of sprawling technology which only benefits Social Workers, the police, other quangos and of course the elite software development entrepreneurs. Read more at Toxic Drums ICS.
(God that was boring!)

Monday 16 May 2011

You just broke your child. Congratulations

I just don't know how to put it all together. I keep finding these really important things and I don't know where to put them. I want to write a web site as big as the internet but I can't. I want to organise it so that it begins to make sense but I can't. I used to be organised but fate or fortune has shattered and decimated my life and now I live in a mess that I can't believe. Some time ago a really nice person sent me the following link. I kept it thinking I'd do something with it when I got organised. I'm not organised so here it is in the middle of nowhere. But then maybe that is where we are. The Middle of nowhere. Where is that anyway?

The link: You just broke your child. Congratulations.

The link is to Single Dad Laughing. Single Dad Laughing is Dan's blog. Dan is Noah's dad. His sentiments are very aligned with mine. He just seems to have achieved more and I applaud him. But what is so important for me is that I wonder, like Dan, why more people don't seem to get it. I feel small and broken but look out world when I get big again!

Saturday 14 May 2011

Jesse Ventura

Respectable, strong, charismatic, intelligent, wrestler, actor, politician and conspiracy theorist.

Jesse Ventura is a person worth knowing. Formally one of those cuddly seals (the US navy ones that don't easily get clubbed to death) this guy is most famous perhaps for his professional wrestling persona Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He went on to act in films, write books, be Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Governor of Minnesota and is now involved in the vague Conspiracy Theorist stuff. I say vague because a lot of it is guff, some of it is double bluff by authorities and underneath it all are some very serious questions that need answers. More about him on Toxic Drums along with other interesting people.

HAARP is a very secret and potentially devastating project by the US government. This is Jesse's take on it:


Where to put your iPad

Given that the Apple brand has recently topped the brand value charts at about $153 billion it is nice to reflect on places you can keep your $153 billion worth of brand.  I was writing a page about Jesse Ventura (which might appear on Toxic Drums web site soon) when I was nonchalantly browsing my alternate personalities on facebook and I came across this video.  It is sweet, delicious, and pure nectar from heaven.  Thank you Allah for making such treasures for us here on Earth.  P.S. Allah, could you let people know that you don't really exist.  I think you and God could have a little get together and perhaps take your iPad from your favourite place and do us all a favour.  It's about time.  Enjoy!

This little blog is dedicated to Aimee Bowen of TALK TØ ANIMALS because I think she'll like it.


Friday 13 May 2011

Colonel Gaddafi talks from the grave.

What a prat!  Sorry I didn't mean to say that.  I am supposed to be a serious and respectable commentator on world events.  The right honourable, worshipful, Muamamamamamar Gaddafi (what is that name anyway it sounds like a cow giving birth) has made a very short audio tape to assure folk that he is alive and well.  (See Gaddafi Taunts NATO in Audio Recording.)  He says he is in a place where they can't kill him and lives in the hearts of millions.  Sounds dead to me.  He always was dead from the neck up maybe he's talking from the other orifice available to him.  Like the shirt though.

Fukushima Melts (again)

"Fukushima Melt"  A delicious new chocolate that doesn't melt in the mouth.  This chocolate melts in the box before you even open it.  A new nuclear powered chocolate that will melt through the bottom of the box and any flimsy shelving and will creep across the floor and deliver the chocolate to wherever you least want it.  This modern advanced chocolate is the result of research done in the Fukushima plant in Japan.  Leading the world in nuclear derivatives Fukushima is also famous for its tsunami milk shakes and earthquake jelly.

That was the fictitious bit but you can buy delicious chocolates from Melt in the UK, the Chocolate Trading Company in the UK and Europe and even Vosges Haut-Chocolat in the US.  Or check out Toxic Drums extensive array of places to buy sweets and chocolates around the world at the Chocolate, Sweets and Candy page.

Now for the serious bit...

The disaster at Fukushima continues to get worse.  Now it is reported that the fuel rods in reactor three have melted causing serious leakage of highly radioactive water.  Although this disaster is dreadful in itself my concern is that these kinds of things are entirely predictable given the culture of competition and greed that is drowning the world.  Ever since I was a child I couldn't understand the contradictory messages from the authorities.  When I was a child it was my parents and the teachers.  It was often put down to me being silly or fussing about little things that don't matter.  But what I couldn't understand then and I still don't understand now is why, for example, our government can say one thing and be doing something entirely different and the debate distracts anyone from actually being responsible and doing something about it.

There is a view that it is not the thing that you do that is wrong but rather it is getting caught that is wrong.  With our punitive culture this is necessarily the result.  Being found out causes bad consequences to you and not being found out doesn't.  It is so obvious that I wonder about the sentient capacity of humanity.  Bullying is regarded as not acceptable in schools and yet they attempt to eradicate it by the teachers bullying instead.  What a ridiculously stupid thing to be doing.

There is a really simple and obvious solution to bullying.  Pay attention to both parties.  Give these new(ish) humans some serious respect.  Pay attention to them, listen to their view.  Don't do the very thing you object to but do the thing you pretend to know is right.  Don't try to judge and condemn and punish.  This is so evidently non-productive it is laughable.  I had the intuition when I was young, I have the personal experience now and there is also an abundance of research to prove it.  Stop this ridiculous punitive bullshit and start believing in humanity.  If making mistakes is such a bad thing the people who succeed in our culture are the ones who make the least mistakes.  This is so backward and self-destructive.  This is not creative.  This can only lead to the people with the most influence being the least connected and sensitive humans available.  This applies to politics, science, industry and business.  If the focus of attention is on not getting caught making a mistake then the focus of attention is not on doing things creatively and well.  Of course there will be some limited temporary benefits.  But like beating a donkey, it works to start with but soon all you have is a corpse.

The emperor is not actually wearing any clothes.  For God's sake wake up humanity.

Thursday 12 May 2011

Fukushima melts

"Fukushima Melt"  A delicious new chocolate that doesn't melt in the mouth.  This chocolate melts in the box before you even open it.  A new nuclear powered chocolate that will melt through the bottom of the box and any flimsy shelving and will creep across the floor and deliver the chocolate to wherever you least want it.  This modern advanced chocolate is the result of research done in the Fukushima plant in Japan.  Leading the world in nuclear derivatives Fukushima is also famous for its tsunami milk shakes and earthquake jelly.

That was the fictitious bit but you can buy delicious chocolates from Melt in the UK, The Chocolate Trading Company in the UK and Europe and even Vosges Haut-Chocolat in the US.  Or check out Toxic Drums extensive array of places to buy sweets and chocolates around the world at the Chocolate, Sweets and Candy page.

Now for the serious bit...

The disaster at Fukushima continues to get worse.  Now it is reported that the fuel rods in one reactor have melted causing serious leakage of highly radioactive water.  Although this disaster is dreadful in itself my concern is that these kinds of things are entirely predictable given the culture of competition and greed that is drowning the world.  Ever since I was a child I couldn't understand the contradictory messages from the authorities.  When I was a child it was my parents and the teachers.  It was often put down to me being silly or fussing about little things that don't matter.  But what I couldn't understand then and I still don't understand now is why, for example, our government can say one thing and be doing something entirely different and the debate distracts anyone from actually being responsible and doing something about it.

There is a view that it is not the thing that you do that is wrong but rather it is getting caught that is wrong.  With our punitive culture this is necessarily the result.  Being found out causes bad consequences to you and not being found out doesn't.  It is so obvious that I wonder about the sentient capacity of humanity.  Bullying is regarded as not acceptable in schools and yet they attempt to eradicate it by the teachers bullying instead.  What a ridiculously stupid thing to be doing.

There is a really simple and obvious solution to bullying.  Pay attention to both parties.  Give these new(ish) humans some serious respect.  Pay attention to them, listen to their view.  Don't do the very thing you object to but do the thing you pretend to know is right.  Don't try to judge and condemn and punish.  This is so evidently non-productive it is laughable.  I had the intuition when I was young, I have the personal experience now and there is also an abundance of research to prove it.  Stop this ridiculous punitive bullshit and start believing in humanity.  If making mistakes is such a bad thing the people who succeed in our culture are the ones who make the least mistakes.  This is so backward and self-destructive.  This is not creative.  This can only lead to the people with the most influence being the least connected and sensitive humans available.  This applies to politics, science, industry and business.  If the focus of attention is on not getting caught making a mistake then the focus of attention is not on doing things creatively and well.  Of course there will be some limited temporary benefits.  But like beating a donkey, it works to start with but soon all you have is a corpse.

The emperor is not actually wearing any clothes.  For God's sake wake up humanity.

Monday 9 May 2011

Bloody blogging

My life is so random I couldn't make it consistent if I tried.  What is consistency anyway?  Dada.  I found an interesting band called TALK TØ ANIMALS http://talktoanimals.bandcamp.com/ through some serendipitous connection on the internet and liked the stuff.  It is psycho pop industrial candy pepper.  What? You want official genres?  I would say "Fuck off" but I don't swear on my blog in case the morality police come and torture me and sever my intravenous internet connection.  I have also spent the last hour listening to Pere Ubu at http://ubuprojex.net/ it's good.  That is a short blog.

Friday 6 May 2011

My Brother the Islamist

"My Brother the Islamist" is a documentary made by Rob Leech in 2010 about his stepbrother.  His step brother who was called Rich converted to Islam, under the now infamous Anjem Choudary, and took the name Salahuddin.



General opinion of the film:  It is worth watching.  It is thought provoking and entertaining.  Quite funny in parts and quite scary in others.  It's what I call factional fict.  Or was that fictional fact.  It is about factual people who have fictional ideas that they think are factual and fictionalise fact and factualise fiction.

It's a weird film because it is presented by a softly spoken 'normal' English guy and he presents the weirdness and anomalies of his step brother as if this is Islam.  By the end of the film I imagine a lot of people will think that the prejudices that abound about Islam are reasonable.  This is perhaps a little prejudicial itself.  On watching the film and hearing the announcements of Salahuddin my reaction was to do a bit of investigating.  He claims, for example, that "The worst of the Muslims is better than the best of the Kafir (or Kuffar).  That is a fact.  That's why the Kafir will burn in hell for eternity."  Well this sounds a little severe since Kafir is a term which in common usage suggests any non-Muslim.  However it actually refers to any non monotheists.  So Christians and Jews are not Kafir.  It is said to be a non-pejorative word.  In that case, given that we are all at liberty to hold our own beliefs, it seems reasonable that he is expressing the view that, translated into Christian terms, is simply saying that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  if you don't believe in God you can't go to heaven.  As far as I am concerned these things are perfectly fine analogies for discussing one's understanding of the dynamics of life.  But taken literally they are arbitrary nonsense.  There is no God.  There is no heaven.  These are not demonstrable realities they are inventions by humans to try to explain their experience.  The problems only begin to arise when some people not only think they are real but need to get other people to agree with them as if to confirm their belief.  Now taking what Salahuddin actually said it appears to me that he is simply a psychological disaster.  He is insecure and needs to condemn other people to make himself feel okay.  It is clear that whatever "literal" justification or excuses can be made for his remarks that he was actually just being offensive to anyone who doesn't agree with him.  He has sold out because in order to feel secure he has ascribed to someone else's dogma.  Now he goes around like a foot soldier with a sense of identity and a courage born of a perceived higher power than himself.  He's okay.  And all these other Kafir are not.  Personally I wouldn't stop him saying the stuff that he says but I do disagree with him and I think he attempts to foster negative feelings in other people.  My response to him is that he is a poor broken boy who has grown up and got mad.  (I blame the parents.)  He is arrogant, sanctimonious, judgemental and a bit of a control freak.  So what?  You get those types in all religions.  What has that got to do with Islam.  During the violent and tragic troubles in Libya at the moment there are thousands of Libyans escaping to Tunisia.  The Tunisians are taking these people into their houses and looking after them.  These are mostly Muslims.  I doubt you would see this level of personal kindness in many Christian countries.  It is not about the religion it is about people.  I dislike all religions because the proverbial crap floats to the top.  Salahuddin is, in my opinion, a misguided and prejudicial character.  His views are only expressed through his beliefs they are not the defining beliefs of Muslims.  On that basis I think the film is possibly as guilty of propagating prejudice as it tries to suggest Islam is.

My own view, for what it is worth, is that all Abrahamic religions are an abdication of responsibility and result in the very opposite of what they profess to believe in.  I find them appalling aberrations of what could otherwise be sensitive, insightful, powerful, creative and beautiful sentient life in the universe.  They fictionalise goodness and expel it from reality.  They, in words from the Bhagavad Gita, made famous by Oppenheimer, "have become death and the destroyer of worlds".  So don't get me wrong I do not like Islam.  I don't like Christianity and I don't like Judaism.  I am clear about that.  It doesn't mean that a lot of people who in my opinion mistakenly think they believe in these religions aren't very kind, loving people.

This film however is a little insidious in the way it tries to define Islam by looking at the worst of Salahuddin.  It polarises and engenders fear and hatred.  But it does it less openly than its opponent.  Doing the Toxic Drums psychoanalysis and visionary divination to predict the future I will say that you can expect to see a lot more of the tragic case of Salahuddin as he becomes more emboldened and compulsively addicted to his own fame.  He is in effect creating his own glorious end.

I would like to add that I have nothing personal against Salahuddin (cough cough - sorry I have a frog in my throat) but I did find it amusing that he was walking down a street in Weymouth in the summer complaining about random people saying "You see the culture has become even more homosexual ... you see young men dressed like women or whatever nowadays." and he is wearing a dress.  He can't even make his mind up because under his dress he is wearing trousers.  Since we are apparently comfortable stereotyping all and sundry willy-nilly that makes me wonder about him.

Gosh I am outspoken.  Get back in yer box Sam.

What was Obama watching in the Situation room?

Here is the now famous picture of President Barack Hussein Obama II in the Situation Room of the White House on 1 May 2011 watching the live action film of the US Navy Seals assault on Osama bin Laden's residence in Pakistan. Apparently the Seals had web cams strapped to their heads and live images were relayed back to the Whitehouse so that Obama could watch Osama killed in real time. Also present at this historic and momentous occasion were Vice President Joe Biden, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (burping after too much coke), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, and Counter-Terrorism chief John Brennan.

Toxic drums has irrefutable evidence and indeed undeniable proof that this is a sham. Toxic Drums has used its advanced cyber enhancement applications to reveal the true content of the video. By enlarging and re-rendering the reflections in various objects around the room exclusive images of what they were really watching have been uncovered.

It transpires they were actually watching a pirated version of V For Vendetta directed by James McTeigue and starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman.

Below is one frame taken from an enlarged and enhanced reflection from President Obama's left eye. It clearly shows a reflection of V in his tell-tale Guy Fawkes mask made even more famous by the internet meme Anonymous. Anonymous are perhaps best known for their involvement in the cyber attacks, known as Operation Payback, on the terrorist groups Amazon, MasterCard, PayPal and Visa when they tried to silence the WikiLeaks voice of freedom back in December 2010.


You can clearly see the truth for yourself and we have no reason here to make up fictitious stories to fool the public. There is no underlying agenda like making money from Google Ads. We are not in the business of treating the public as saps, goofs or gullible idiots. We respect our visitors and would not lie to them on moral grounds as well as the fact that we have no hidden agenda. It is really really true. President Obama and Hilary Clinton were watching V For Vendetta and you heard it first on Toxic Drums. We also have pictures proving that they had pizza before the film but we are not going to reveal those because it might offend gnomes and anyway we have chucked the evidence in the fish tank out of respect. We are now going to invade Iran. Woops - Did I type that out loud? Was the keyboard on?

Thursday 5 May 2011

A fishy end to the bin Laden saga.

Obama says "We had done extensive DNA tests and were sure this was Osama bin Laden. "  This is going from bad to worse.  The more utter bull-s#!t they spew out in their attempt to cover one lie up with another is getting ridiculous.  I sometimes despair at humanity.  Why?  Because I am one and I know how easily we are fooled.  But please, Jo Public, don't "believe" this stuff just because you don't have an alternative explanation.  This stuff coming from the US about the alleged killing of bin Laden is insubstantial, unverifiable, contradictory and hardly feasible.  History clearly indicates that these kinds of events are rarely what they are purported to be at the time.  Why does the American Administration rely (sadly with some substantial evidence) on the gullibility of the people of the world?

They claim to have flown into Pakistan un-challenged, attacked a building right next door to the main Pakistan military academy, shot a few people including Osama who was armed (and then in another report was not armed) and they flew off with the body, dumped it in the sea with respect for Islamic beliefs (eh?) and are sure it was him because they did DNA tests.  Where and when did they get these tests done?

What I see is a bunch of powerful individuals concocting a scenario which suits their agenda.  For me it is irrelevant whether bin Laden was in that house and whether they killed him or not.  What is clear is that they are not being honest.  This is a concoction full of contradictions and fudges.  Given our observation of history it is clear what is going on.  This is a stage show and the question should be "why?".  Why are they doing this.  What are they up to?  I have some experience of pathological liars and the truth is floating like an invisible ether in the projection of the deception.  I can't see it because it is complex and I am not a political animal.  Actually I hate all these political manoeuvrings.  My only reason for being interested is because I am stuck in an attic, ill and watching all this bad behaviour on my computer.  I am close to destitute because of bad behaviour of other human beings.  It makes me mad to see how acceptable it appears to be to the common folk.  So many people just swallow it whole because they are caught up in the slavery of consumerism and oppression.  So long as they believe the projected reality they don't get troubled at work and they get to take their wages home to feather their own measly nest with reality shows, trash and political magic shows to distract them from the pain.

I've said things like this before and I'll say it again; this is a fiction being fed to the population.  I don't know what they think they are doing but two things are sure:  We will discover it was a lie in the end, and we will discover that it conveniently justified some otherwise unjustifiable action in the future.  I am waiting to see if this ultimately leads to an attack on Iran.  Why?  I don't know.  But they wanted to get into Afghanistan and Iraq and then Iran.  That was a plan before they started putting pressure on Afghanistan (previously their friends) and instigated the alliance between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.  Funny how soon after that the World Trade Center came down and if you didn't know otherwise you wouldn't understand.  When the World Trade Center towers were attacked in an unbelievable sequence of events that were clearly interruptible it was odd how blind eyes and confusion appeared all over the place and the planes crashed into the towers.  Almost before the towers came down it was apparently obviously the work of Osama bin Laden.  It didn't take long for that to turn into an excuse to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.

They claim they won't show images because they don't want to fuel propaganda and retaliation.  That is simply rubbish.  If it suited them otherwise they would say that they wanted to set an example or to quash suggestions that it was not true.  It is as if they are suggesting that they are pandering to the enemies feelings.  It is counter to their professed stance on these matters.

It appears that the bin Laden story has come to a very fishy end.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Vote YES to Alternative Voting

Politics evolves.  It has to if you want a better life.  If you reckon living under our supposed democratic system is better than living under a dictatorship then keep it powered by voting.  It has become increasingly clear that our system of democracy has some significant flaws.  I frequently hear people expressing the view that they don't want to vote because they are only really given the choice to vote for one of two parties where they don't agree with either.  It is a complicated issue which involves money, publicity, power and influence.  But there is no doubt that to get a better representation of what the collective population think is an improvement.

There are arguments that people who vote for extreme parties are extreme and it is not helpful to add weight to their second choice.  But this is the wrong way of thinking about it.  The point is that if the reality is that a large percentage of people are left wing and a few are right wing then to ignore or eliminate the legitimate views of the right wing can only be unjust and lead to a perceived need to be more extreme by the right wing.  Our current system polarises and causes dissent and extremism.   We are in danger of going down the road that only "acceptable" views are tolerated.   But democracy has as a fundamental ideal that everyone's views matter.  It is important to temper policies according to the collective views of all of the population.  First past the post politics leads to division and intolerance.

The Alternative Vote system is far from perfect but it is a definite improvement on the current one.

If the country votes to keep the current system the result will be that the "NO" to AV side will consider the question of electoral reform dead and we are stuck in a system that will not bring good fortune and evolution in the long run.  If the "YES" to AV side wins there will be no doubt in politician's minds that the country wants electoral reforms and there will be added impetus to continue improving the way our democracy works.

The current system encourages lies and deception.  As Tony Blair said in his pre election speech back in 1997 "We know we are right so we will say whatever it takes to get into power."  That might be paraphrasing him but I recall being shocked at the implications.  When the fight is between two parties then it is about winning and not about policies and responding to the public's views.  When politicians are faced with the very real prospect that they might not get into power simply because they belong to the strongest party of two they become more receptive to the collective views of their constituencies.  Politicians are forced to become more responsible and representative.

There are emotive arguments put forward in favour of saying NO to AV.  There are fear mongers suggesting things could be worse.  But there are very little rational and sensible arguments put forward.  It appears that the thinking people are fully aware that AV is a step in the right direction.

DO NOT LET THIS OPPORTUNITY PASS by havering (not a word but it sounds right - I suspect it is a merger of hesitating and wavering).  SAY YES TO AV because we must have change to stop this Orwellian decline into authoritarian control by deception.  Moderates and extremists alike will benefit from a more representative voting system.  Next on the agenda is proportional voting but let's take it one step at a time.

I can't really emphasise strongly enough that we don't want this opportunity to pass because the British public are getting lethargic and uninterested in politics because they don't feel their voice is heard anyway.  If you want your views taken into account and to have more effect  then you simply must vote YES to Alternative Voting.

There is no alternative to voting YES to Alternative Voting.  Alternatively you might take the alternative route and vote no and leave the future with no alternative but the current decline into no alternative politics.  Got that?

VOTE YES

Thank you and goodnight.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Osama bin Laden is NOT dead!


Oh dear.  Toxic Drums has got to admit to being a bit rash.  First off I explained all about the evident lies spewing forth from Gaddafi's mouth and media.  Then I went and posted about the death of Mr Osama (Usama, Usāmah) bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden as if it were true.  Then they dumped the body in the sea.  So how are they going to allow independent verification that they really did have poor old Osama in that body bag?

Then I started trying to piece the whole story together and I noticed a few more anomalies.  The US announced that no US servicemen lost their lives in the adventure.  And there were reports of the US losing a helicopter in Pakistan that night.  They responded by saying it had a mechanical failure and was not shot down.  Then it transpires the very same helicopter was seen to blow up over the mansion fortress that they were attacking to kill Obama Osama.  Hang on.  There were two helicopters used in the assault, one was seen to explode and the US admitted they lost one and yet no US servicemen died.  Well it is possible I guess but there is a noticeable lack of information making this a consistent and coherent story.  Then I find out more information about the mansion.  It was built some years ago and it has 18 foot high walls all around it and is heavily fortified and guarded with barbed wire on top of the surrounding walls.  It is in a restricted and secure area of the city where folk have to produce identification regularly.  It is right next door to a military training centre.  And yet no one knew who lived there?  This is sounding a little farfetched.  But even if all this were true it seems very odd that they should kill a few witnesses and announce that they have spirited Osama's body away to a ship.  They assure us they made extensive checks to ascertain that this really was the one and only unique Osama bin Laden and then the chucked him overboard.  Well, they say they treated the body with Islamic respect and chucked it overboard. Sploshette!

I think the US and the Saudis and the Pakistan hierarchy knew (or know) where Osama was (or is).  It is a clever trick used by authoritarian control freaks to maintain ignorance so that their lies have more credibility.  It is typical of these people to let it be known that they don't want to know "the details" so that it is perfectly "true" that they don't "know" where bin Laden is.  But right next door to a military training base?  No one asked who lived in this fortified mansion.  There is only one reason people don't ask questions like that and it is when it is made clear to them that they are not to ask.

Look - Can you imagine someone building a fortified mansion 300 yards from Buckingham Palace and no one showing the slightest interest in who is living behind the 18 foot walls with barbed wire on top?  Let's get real about this.  There is no way the story stands up.  It is dubious whether the Americans could have got two helicopters that far into Pakistan without encountering some resistance.  It is not so very likely that they could have actually attacked this guarded compound with two helicopters without some serious resistance.  It was constantly guarded by armed guards.  Who were they guarding it against?  "Oh look there are two very noisy helicopters approaching!  That won't be a problem.  I wonder if Santa Clause is paying a late visit?"

And if the US actually wanted people to believe the truth of their claims that they had killed the most wanted man by the US they would have gone to great lengths to prove it wouldn't they?  But they made up some story about respecting Islamic customs and chucked him off a boat.  Nonsense.  It is so ridiculous to expect anyone to believe it that it becomes unbelievable.  If I did something and I told people I did it, I might not care if they believed me or not.  So I kill a guy and I don't care if they believe me and I chuck him in the sea.  As a matter of information I tell them that I killed this guy.  They say "We don't believe you."  I say "I don't care - it is still true."  Fine if I don't care.  But politics is a different game and there is only one reason to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and that is that it be known that you have done it.  It is, therefore, inherently important to conjure up as much proof as possible. But they have disposed of the evidence.  This is not the action of a power that wants it to be known that they have killed the guy.  This is asking for doubt.  It is even a little incompetent if they are lying.  I would have imagined that they could have constructed a slightly more believable story.

So what is going on.  I wish I knew; Then my blog might become more famous.  But I am waiting to see if there are suddenly a lot of troublesome Al-Qaeda attacks and that for some reason the US will be able to suggest it is Iran who is fostering Al-Qaeda and so they had better invade them.  So far my reading of history and politics suggests the US is aching to invade Iran.  All the paperwork that predicted the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan suggests Iran is next on the list.  I don't pretend to understand quite how their minds work or why it is of interest to them but I know that many people seem to think it is on their agenda.  So let's wait and see.  If something like that happens you can bet your bottom dollar that this fiasco about killing Osama bin Laden will be banded about as part of the equation.  Then you might get the picture.  Then you might just begin to realise that politicians cannot be naive individuals doing just what they say they do or they would never be the ones in power in the first place.  The World Trade Center fiasco was not the simple case presented to the world's public and this farce about capturing a person who was probably already dead is not what it appears to be.

So I unreservedly apologise for suggesting this story might have had any more credence than the one about the US killing Gaddafi's son on Saturday 30 April 2011.

It is simply more entertainment whilst we amuse ourselves to death!

Monday 2 May 2011

Osama bin Laden is dead!

Omar bin Laden will probably not be too distressed at the news that his father, Osama bin Laden is dead. On all accounts he was not keen on his oppressive, authoritarian father. He was destined to be his father's successor but left home in 2001 just before the World Trade Center came down.

Osama was famous for bringing those buildings down and has been top of the US "WANTED" list since then. Bin Laden was killed by a drone. Another claim to historical fame methinks. Unmanned remote warfare! I wonder if he is still alive in cyberspace? Reminds me of the lyrics from Amused to Death "We play the game, With the bravery of being out of range. We zap and maim, With the bravery of being out of range."

He was apparently killed in a mansion just outside of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, but he was apparently quite ill anyway. More mystery! Osama was born 10 March 1957 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia and was the son of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a wealthy businessman with close ties to the Saudi royal family. He went on to create the military Islamic organisation Al-Qaeda in 1988 and said that the United States would bankrupt themselves with wars in the Middle East. It is just possible that he will turn out to be right. Ironically it was the CIA who funded the building of his training camps and military bases in Afghanistan when they were comrades in arms against the Russians.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait back in 1990 Osama asked the Saudi Royal family to let him get Sadam out of Kuwait and not to let the Americans into these holy lands. But the Saudis invited the US instead and apparently Osama never forgave them. Osama died some time before 1 May 2011 aged 54 years old. A man who achieved an immense amount in his short life. Some bad and some good. The good, I suspect, was his perception of the fundamental immorality of the Western world and it's financial system which was destined to fail. With this perception he has woken up perhaps millions of people to a less naive perception of the West. The bad, I suspect, is the damage and death that he caused.

In Obama's speech announcing the death of Osama he emphasised (understandably) the World Trade Center tragedy. But I don't agree with the simplistic good and evil analysis of the affair. It seems fair to me that the US should be out to get Osama but I don't believe the US are somehow the goodies and Osama simply the baddy. It was the Americans who built his military capacity when they wanted to defeat the Russians. They double crossed him and have used Al-Qaeda as an excuse to carry out some horrible and unacceptable behaviour ever since. The way I see it is that all these "leaders" are hardly better than each other. The Americans love the Saudis and the Saudis loved Osama. Osama wanted to bring down the dictatorships across the Middle East which were propped up by the US. History is evolving fast but it was neither Osama who brought the dictators down nor did the US manage to keep them in power against the greater spirit of humanity and the common people's inherent desire for freedom. In the battle of good against evil I would seriously caution against thinking that the US have done a good thing by killing Osama bin Laden. They have rather continued the war and the propaganda.

Anyway - That is one small chapter in world history over. Osama bin Laden is dead! I'm looking forward to the next chapter. I'm sure it will be at least as intriguing.

Lies & more lies

I learnt something many years ago about liars.  People who lie will tell you they know something to be true and yet somehow it is up to you to prove them wrong.  But if you (a more truthful person) claim something is true it is up to you to prove to them that it is true.  When a person has repeatedly lied before, it is reasonable to consider that what they say could simply be a lie and it is not your responsibility to prove they are lying any more.  In fact if you have even a reasonable suspicion that they are lying it is reasonable to act on the basis that what they say is a lie because it is a feasible possibility.

There is no point in giving any credence to Colonel Gaddafi's claim that his son has been killed by NATO.  It is far more pragmatic to regard it as a lie until significant evidence to the contrary is produced.  Gaddafi is a habitual liar and so nothing can be gained by believing anything he says.  Even if Saif's body is produced it is no evidence of how he died.  Having seen the footage supposedly of the building blown up by a NATO attack in which Saif is said to have died it is clear that it is a fiction so why is the world still talking as if this nonsense has any substance?  The evidence is clear that he is lying and we wouldn't even need that evidence to be justified in that assumption.

And what of the report 'Gaddafi's son joins Libyan protesters' on Press TV dated 24 February 2011?  Convenient really that it is his rebel son who has died.  I guess he didn't want him any more anyway.  What me callous?  No, just realistic.

It is funny really that the Russians are choosing to believe this sort of nonsense simply because it suits their ambiguous position which allows them to maintain their objections to the NATO position.  The Russians are playing the cynical game of opposing the action in support of the rebels whilst not opposing the rebels.  That way it doesn't matter who gets the upper hand Russia can manipulate their stance to appear always in support of the winner.  Opportunism methinks.  But I guess the Russian hierarchy are quite familiar with feigning belief in fiction to alter the perception of history for their own benefit.  Putin is an unreliable egocentric megalomaniac.  And he is not a pleasant guy either.  Why do we put up with all this bullshit?

Sunday 1 May 2011

Gaddafi's claim that NATO have killed his son seems a little spurious.

In addition to the post on Saif and the Princess Gaddafi's claim that NATO have killed his son and three grandchildren is looking more and more seriously dubious. The Libyan authorities have released footage (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/04/2011430224755721620.html) that they claim is of the residential property that was targeted by NATO. This footage was available within an hour or so of the claimed attack. But the footage shows a lot of rubble and very settled dust. There is a shot of a polished wooden piece of furniture, as if to prove that this building was residential, with two books on it standing next to a very big blast hole in a wall. Anyone who has ever done a bit of building at home knows how all pervasive building dust is. If this attack happened within an hour of the film being released I don't imagine the dust would have settled. And strangely, although there is a little dust on the furniture, the colour of one of the books is clearly green. In fact there is very little dust on the furniture at all. There is not an amount of dust consistent with a missile destroying the house one hour earlier. Also all the filming inside the building where nothing is recognisable other than rubble there is no sign of fire, smoke, or even dust in the air. So I conclude the film is a fiction. If the film is a fiction it begs the question whether the claims about Saif Al-Arab Gaddafi and his three children are false too. Somebody is definitely lying.

Saif Gaddafi and the Princess' Hat

So it appears that Saif Al-Arab Gaddafi has been killed by a NATO air strike. Saif was 29 years old and the youngest of Muammar's sons. There are also reports that three of Muammar Gaddafi's grandchildren have also been killed. Saif Al-Arab is not to be mistaken for Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi who has been seen on television numerous times over the past weeks supporting his father's actions.

There is something a little odd since it was reported recently that Saif Al-Arab had defected to the rebels' side. The report appears difficult to confirm and so quite what Saif Al-Arab had to do with events in Libya are uncertain. It would seem ridiculous speculation to suggest that his father ordered his execution for defecting and then orchestrated this explanation to gain sympathy and to blame NATO and the Western World for immoral and ruthless behaviour. It would, however, be a convenient way of killing two birds with one stone. Given the number of other bizarre constructs and explanations given for events in the past this would not be outside the bounds of possibility in terms of ridiculousness but it would be a particularly heinous and ruthless event if it were the case.

So one is left not knowing to what depths Colonel Muammar Gaddafi might sink in his attempts to wreck revenge on Libyan people for daring to rise up against him and to save not only his own skin but his power and wealth as well. Knowing that Mr Gaddafi senior is quite happy to kill innocent children by blowing them up in a Boeing 747 over Lockerby one can't help not worrying too much about his feelings (if he has any) about the death of a son.

Given all the strife in the Middle East and North Africa one expects many people will have a celebratory reaction to this news. It is so tragic that human beings act in such ways that these sorts of things have to happen. It is so sad for each and every individual who has been killed, maimed, injured or otherwise harmed by these conflicts. But above all else I think each and every one of us has the inherent responsibility to act on our own moral perspective as a human. All of Gaddafi's children have the option to disagree with their father's policies. All of them have the possibility of opposing him or walking out. Not easy I'm sure but there perhaps lies the big issue. It is always easier to take the easy route when threatened by authoritarian figures. And I guess it is up to all of us to stand against oppression whenever we can in our everyday lives.

This brings me on to Princess Beatrice's hat. When I saw a picture of poor little Beatrice wearing this monstrosity in the name of fashion the first thing it reminded me of was the courtiers and high society of the early Georgian period. At what age do we become supposedly responsible for our own actions. If this were done to a minor I would call it abuse. It is deliberate ridicule. It is obscene to the point of asserting superiority because one is not allowed to criticise the hierarchy. It is the emperor and his new clothes. Although I applaud art and creativity and in another context would welcome the experimentation and the strange evocative nature of the bizarre, this is unfortunately the hierarchy of British society. Beatrice was attending a Royal Wedding where many ruthless dictators under the guise of "royalty" were invited as part of the hierarchical structure of power mongers the world over. Many of these individuals are in the controversial and diplomatically awkward position of being currently engaged in evident ruthless suppression of millions of people. If I were a member of the Royal Family I would feel it necessary to refuse my invitation because of my moral stance. I don't object to people being frivolous and having fun. I don't object to princes wearing fascist uniforms at fancy dress parties but this kind of fatuous naivety in the face of the relentless killings being evidenced in the Middle East and North Africa at an "official" event which is maintaining the authority of the powers that be is not acceptable human behaviour. It is not a case of your sister or a local family splashing out and having a bit of fun. Unfortunately these people hold significant positions of power and authority. They have a very real effect on other people's lives. In Britain there are too many people without homes and too many children living in poverty and being abused. There are too many criminal bankers and politicians running away with the money which is other people's livings. The hierarchy has a responsibility to narrow the wealth gap not increase it. They have a responsibility to help foster fairness and a humane society or they are not fit to hold their positions. So although if this were a local wedding of a local average couple I would simply think this was a rotten design for a hat in this case I think it is an insult to the majority of the people of Britain and to the billions of desperate people the world over including those suffering in the Middle East.

So we have a questionable story of a colonel's son being killed by an air strike and a questionable hat on a princess. Life is so weird.