It's Monday, the Heavens have opened and the rain is falling in absolute torrents. We've even had thunder and lightning. Autumn was late this year and now she has arrived, making a grand entrance and making sure we all notice. A typical bloody woman!
Her sister Winter isn't far behind and I have a feeling she's in a bad mood too.
One of the trashiest acts on X Factor here in the UK this year are John and Edward, the twins. Nice chaps though they may be, as a talented act they stink and really should not have gotten past the first round of auditions for the X Factor is supposed to be finding the next superstar.
Today the papers are burning with the news that an incredibly talented performer, Lucie Jones, was ousted by Simon Cowell in favour of the talentless twins. What is remarkable isn't the fact that Simon Cowell used his vote in a stragtegy against the other judges is that what he did has caused so much media coverage.
This is a talent show! ITS NOT THAT IMPORTANT!!! A column somewhere in the entertainment section of the newspapers would suffice, perhaps a mention at the end of a news report. As front page news it really isn't worth the ink!
So, if a tatent show and the voting shinanigans within can cause such a frenzy why don't other things? What I'm referring to is the referendum on the acceptance of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish. The treaty creates a superstate on the EU. It transfers powers from the nation states to Brussels where an UN-ELECTED, UN DEMOCRATIC and CORRUPT organization will, from now, on dictate every aspect of our lives.
The first time the Irish voted they voted NO. It was not accepted by the EU and they were falsed to vote again. 'Er... Is that how a democracy works?' For the rest of Europe we didn't get a vote, we had no say in who rules our country. Well actually the French and the Duch did. They voted NO as well but that was when the Treaty was called the EU Constitution. So the document was renamed from Constitution to Treaty so that there were few legal reasons for the people of Europe to be consulted on such an important issue as the dismantelling of their country.
So it look like this...
the EU renames the constitution so We the People don't have a say. ----- Hardly made the news
the Prime Ministers, Presidents of Europe sign it without consulting the People ----- Hardly made the news
the Irish vote NO but are made to vote again ----- Hardly made the news
Simon Cowell votes off a talented singer in favor of 2 talentless twins ----- TV, News Papers, Radio, Webshere are going crazy!!!!
My conclusion. Britain is a nation of Fuckwits who deserve to be enslaved in the new Soviet Union because if the country can get in a tiz over X Factor while a sinister Marxist state is being constructed then God help us.
I guarantee that this little post will have people falling over themselves to pass on a winning formula or scheme for I have decided that we need to make some money quick. I'm not talking about a little bit of pocket money or even huge obscene piles of filthy lucre, but a substantial amount enough to help pay the bills each month.
My wife, God bless all who sail in her, is off work on sick leave and has been for about 3 months now. At first it wasn't too bad but a threshold was reached where her pay was cut and is now at £0.00 / hour. We had no money before but now we have zip + less, so Jan thought that from her sick bed she would try to find a way to do work at home, probably online.
The trouble with online businesses is that they are pretty much crap! If you look at them you see that they are usually a pyramid scheme. You buy the program and then promote it on your own website and the people who buy the scheme from you, promote and sell further downline. The trick seems to be getting into the top 10 search engine results so people can find you on the Net and buy the scheme from you. Lets face it, the average Joe ain't going to get there. Companies spend 1000's on site optimization so unless you got the budget, forget it!
So, crappy online schemes are out. What else is there? How can a girl make money while in bed? Well the obvious way is not going to happen! That's quite clear, but we did decide that, considering the amount of pervs and sexual deviants out there, there must probably be a 'market' for women with walking aids. (I'm looking in to it on the sly so don't tell the wife )
Anyhoo... Back to the problem. I need a money making scheme to save being turned onto the streets and to save my poor wifes sanity. Not only is she bored but I'm sure she is getting 'stir' crazy and is acting weird. Conversations with furniture is not healthy I'm sure and it's freaking me out.
It's Thanksgiving next month, one of the USAs best exports and probably based on Harvest Festival which has all but died out here in the UK.
For the past couple of years we have joined in the American celebration but still cannot get a day off work for it. Nevertheless a slap up meal and a discussion on what we are grateful for this year is what we do and one thing we are grateful for is the lack of commercial hype which, IMHO, is a curse which has ruined Christmas. (I'm sure stateside the story is much different!)
Well, while Thanksgiving is for the time being, unsullied, we want to get a true flavor of this US holiday. So... Has anyone got some recipes to share? Please tell me which state/county/city as well. The US is a big place and I'm sure there are may variations of a theme.
We had a perfect Sunday afternoon. A stroll in the park, the sun was shining with a cool breeze, and then off to the pub for a swift half. Sitting in the beer garden in the shade of trees dappled by sunlight we could hear church bells ringing and we both agreed that at that very moment we could be no where on Earth other than England. Shear bliss!
We had intended to go home, cook diner and get an early night in, being a school night and all, but as we walked back through the pub we saw that a band were setting up to the rear of the bar. It was a feeble excuse to stay for another drink but we sat down at a table and watch them set up, tune up and do a sound check. The decision to stay was a good one as the group were fantastic and are local too. Calling themselves Arcane Roots they played some serious rock but had one song which was a mix of blues and thrash metal. Hard to imagine I know, but it worked.
After watching their set and walking home we didn't actually get in from our afternoon stroll until 11pm.
Just been mailed this rewrite of RK's famous poem. Where the original gave courage and hope, the candidness of this version is disheartening. Brutal truth from the front line, meanwhile pen pushers in Whitehall look forward to gold plated pensions.
Afghanistan – (with apologies to Kipling)
When you’re lying alone in your Afghan bivvy, And your life it depends on some MOD civvie When the body armour’s shared (one set between three), And the firefight’s not like it is on TV, Then you’ll look to your oppo, your gun and your God, As you follow that path all Tommies have trod.
When the gimpy has jammed and you’re down to one round, And the faith that you’d lost is suddenly found. When the Taliban horde is close up to the fort, And you pray that the arty don’t drop a round short. Stick to your sergeant like a good squaddie should, And fight them like satan or one of his brood
Your pay it won’t cover your needs or your wants, So just stand there and take all the Taliban’s taunts Nor generals nor civvies can do aught to amend it, Except make sure you’re kept in a place you can’t spend it. Three fifty an hour in your Afghani cage, Not nearly as much as the minimum wage.
Your missus at home in a foul married quarter With damp on the walls and a roof leaking water Your kids miss their mate, their hero, their dad; They’re missing the childhood that they should have had One day it will be different, one day by and by, As you all stand there and watch, to see the pigs fly
Just like your forebears in mud, dust and ditch You’ll march and you’ll fight, and you’ll drink and you’ll bitch Whether Froggy or Zulu, or Jerry, or Boer The Brits will fight on ‘til the battle is over. You may treat him like dirt, but nowt will unnerve him But I wonder sometimes, if the country deserves him.
Ok. Now I'm getting worried 'coz I'm getting interested in Twitter. The thought of updating my status in 140 characters or less constantly throughout the rest of my life seemed more than a little inane frankly.
Well, I may be wrong. I've been 'following' people like some cyberstalker . Alan Carr is my favorite at the moment and I'm not sure what that says about me...
Going to Tenerife? If so, then take a day out at Siam Park. It has got to be one of the best waterparks I have been to. The wave machine rocks but I must admit to bottling out of the Tower of Power, the only thing I didn't try.
I won't bore you but I have just upgraded my PC from Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibix". OK, that is not too interesting but what has tickled my fancy is the fact that I was able to do this from 6 miles away while sitting at my desk.
Call me a sad and pathetic geek but I find the possibility of doing this amazing and a tribute to the guys at Canonical who have made a rock solid install/upgrade process. As far as I can see, all of my servers (Postfix, IMAP, DNS, DHCP, Squid proxy, Apache webserver) are up and running. My desktop applications are upgraded and, as far as I can tell from my office at least, they seem to work.
From start to finish, it took 2 hours 15mins and total system downtime was 2 mins only because I had to reboot! The last time I upgraded my Windows PC it took all evening and I spent most of that downloading drivers and reinstalling applications. If memory serves, I think it took several days to tweek it to my satisfaction!
Anyway... If anyone wants to have a go, use Putty to SSH into your remote system and forward X11. I use VNC to give me a GUI desktop from where I run "sudo upgrade-manager -d".
As I pass through Myoperaville I thought I'd post a photo or two of Leland. He was temporarily transferred to St Georges in Tooting, London for surgery but is now back in Chertsey to recover.
There is some thing sinister about a treaty which, dispite needing all 27 nations to sign and ratify, is pushed through by the remaining 25 states. The vote by Ireland and the refusal to ratify the treaty by the Czech President are to be ignored. The will of the people who had the chance to vote and voted no is dismissed, the recognition of the legal implications of that no vote, dismissed. The Soviet Socialist European Federation will not be stopped by the law or by democratic process.
To cap it all, yesterday, in secret, Brown had the gall to hand over the soverignty of the UK to the EU by having Her Majesty sign the treaty.
Why in secret? There was no pomp or celebration for this "momentous step" which is supposed to be the best thing to happen to Britain since sliced bread. Even after the event, the newpapers and media did not report what has happened. I myself only found out by reading an Irish website! Is there a media black out????
As I have ranted in the past, the Lisbon Treaty has a profound constitutional effect on the nations signing up to it, so why are the people denied a vote and why all the cloak and dagger antics of the ministers involved?
The EU will now make our laws, run our courts, have powers over our foreign and domestic policy. The armed forces and police are to be controlled by Brussells. The EGF (EuroGenFor) is a paramilitary police force which will act across borders in civil emergencies. Yeah right! It's an internal army, not a police force. They will not be performing investigation of crime but will suppress uprising and civil disturbance. They'll have military grade weapons, armoured vehicles and have a command structure like an army with generals and colonels!
Gordon Brown, Tony B Liar and the rest of the snivelling commie Labour scum are traitors! They should be hung, drawn (preferably while still alive), quartered and their heads should be tarred and put on a pike at the Tower of London.
We've just got a kitten. It wasn't really planned and but this little bundle of fir was too cute to pass by and it would be nice to have a pet arount the place. We live in a flat, so a dog would not really be practical. Cats look after themselves and are very independent critters, dogs need to be let out and have a garden to run about in.
Personally, I would prefer to have a dog but this kitten is sooo much fun. I swear it thinks it's a dog! You know when you get home and you're dog goes crazy, running back and forth and leaping about. Well this cat does it too! I've never seen anything like it!
At 6am, I can just about cope with ironing my shirt and making a sandwich for my lunch but now I have a daft cat, meowing like crazy and jumping on my feet. She only stops when I pick her up and give her a cuddle.
Her name is Poppet and she will be a great little rat catcher in a few months. Here are a few snaps.
My dear old gran is 90 today and I have been thinking about the changes that she has witnessed through out her life. Born just before the first world war ended, she entered a society almost completely run by women as most of the male population was dead. Only the top tier of institutions were still dominated by men and the girls we busy nipping at their heels wanting equality. She saw the rise of communism and fascism and the austerity of the great depression.
Another world war. My grandparents lived on the outskirts of London less than a mile from a factory, Mullards, who made components for aircraft and was a regular target for German bombers. Thanks to the accuracy of the Luftwaffe bombardiers, very few bombs fell too far from their targets and grans end of the street suffered only a couple of 500lb and incendiary hits.
Nuclear weapons and power arrived, rock and roll, electronics, space travel, and we now live in a very condensed world. Intercontinental communication is something we carry around in our pockets and take for granted. We can (at the moment) speak freely and socialise with anyone on the planet, even while waiting for a bus.
So Happy birthday Gran, heres to the next 90 years!
Just a few minutes ago Dermot Ahern admitted that the lisbon Treaty may well have been rejected by the people of Ireland and well done to them but, as they say "The referrendum's not over 'til the fat lady sings" and a yes may surge forward from the back of the pack. I doubt it though.
So what happens now? My bet is the EU will demand another referrendum and if that is a NO, another and another and another until the Irish vote correctly.
If a second referrendum is held it would not be particulary democratic now would it. The People have spoken and like it or not the Peoples decision must be accepted. A second referrendum would also be an insult to the rest of us who have been denied just one opportunity to vote.
"No you can't have a say on constitutional changes... you might say no.!" "Like Ireland did?" Replied the People. "Er yes, but they will get another chance to accept what we want" Said the man from the EU. "Like they did with the Treaty of Nice" "Yes, democracy in action." he announced, puffing out his smug chest. "But what about us?" Complained the People, "We want at least one chance to have a say!" "You voted for your MP's and they have made the decision for you!" He snapped. "But the Treaty of Nice makes the EU a soverign state over it's member states. Who do we vote out when we are displeased?" "You don't." he replied with an ominous tone to his voice. "Because you never voted anyone in."
Meanwhile The StaziKGB Europol were building some Gulags and Labour camps for all the dissidents...
This Thursday the Irish have a vote on acceptance of the Lisbon Treaty. This vote is the last defence in the fight to preserve democracy and freedom in Europe and it is most important that the Irish People say NO!
Even if a person is in favor of a European Superstate, I personally am not, they should still vote NO and try and force the treaty/EU Constitution to be withdrawn in it's current form for it is the most freightening treat to democracy since the Fascists and Communists took control of Europe in the 20's and 30's.
The treaty is constitutional dispite it's re branding and creates the EU as a country in it's own right and removes souverignty of the member states, reducing them to regions or cantons.
At the moment people in Europe vote for their representatives in their respective governments and have the ability to lobby them. The treaty removes that representation in the new EU country and laws are made by un elected clerks.
Voting on the laws and policies in the new EU country will depend on the population of a member state so that those with higher population densities will have more say on what goes on in the EU so Germany, France and Britain will dominate the EU. Ireland will be a very small voice indeed. As all the laws for the whole of the EU will be made in Brussells and dominated by a few states, I cannot see a true democracy for all EU citizens being created.
The Irish have fought for centuries to establish their freedom and gained independence (except for Ulster) only 86 years ago. I think it would be a shame to see the Irish Constitution torn up and the country surrendered to un elected beaurocrats so I urge all the Irish to vote NO to Lisbon. The people of Ireland have an opportunity to have a say. That opportunity is denied to the rest of us and our governments have accepted the treaty without even reading it so please don't waste this chance.
I think I am blessed. The gods have given me such a wonderful life being married to Jan. We have had our hardships, experiences that I hope no-one has to have, but we have got though them. The tough times have made us strong and each day our love gets stonger. Our best friends are each other and nothing can split us.
Do you believe we never argue? An occasional heated discussion yes but argue no. All around there seem to be people fighting with their partner, breaking up and divorcing. It seems almost alien to us and not one person we know beleives we have never found a reason to fight each other.
There is a draw back though. We never have make up sex. Ive been told its very good but I think I am quite happy not to try it
Another slow creep of the database state and loss of privacy. I discovered this from a couple of days ago and what a prime example of Nu Labour and their blossoming fascist state. Follow the link below to read all about it.
We had no money before but now we have zip + less, so Jan thought that from her sick bed she would try to find a way to do work at home, probably online.
Well the obvious way is not going to happen! That's quite clear, but we did decide that, considering the amount of pervs and sexual deviants out there, there must probably be a 'market' for women with walking aids. 
(I'm looking in to it on the sly so don't tell the wife 
)
Please tell me which state/county/city as well. The US is a big place and I'm sure there are may variations of a theme.
which is supposed to be the best thing to happen to Britain since sliced bread. Even after the event, the newpapers and media did not report what has happened. I myself only found out by reading an Irish website! Is there a media black out????
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Ive been told its very good but I think I am quite happy not to try it 
WIDGETIZE