Warning!! This blog is protected by Adam J. Applegarth

Sadly, it is time once again for this blog to go quiet for a week or two. Blobfish is otherwise engaged so I'm putting my special collector's edition action figurine of ace Northern Rock CEO Adam J. Applegarth on guard duty in Blobfish's place

and it's going to be kind of interesting to see if Adam and his chums at NR manage to wangle more in loans and guarantees out of HM Treasury than was actually at risk in the way of depositors' money when all this nonsense started...

Let me see, they're up to £16,000,0000,000 already and they're borrowing £3,000,000,0000 a week and the amount of money on deposit when the crisis started was reported as being about £24,000,000,000. So, what's that? Two, three weeks to go?

but, hey, the BBC isn't talking very much about Northern Rock these days so everything must be peachy

and in case anyone missed it, here's a handy video analysis (ripped from Wolfie's blog) of the fundamental causes of that credit crisis which not many people seem to be talking about anymore and which therefore has presumably gone away...

The Credit Crunch - it's made of credit and it's crunchy

And sadly, it's unlikely that I will be able to participate in and report on Islamo-Fascism awareness week, in particular the march scheduled for this coming Friday. There's nothing I would enjoy more than spending the day demonstrating my solidarity with people who believe that the Western World is just a short step away from COMPLETE!! and UTTER!! Muslim domination.

Maybe after the march we could have all gone off hunting for Snarks and fighting Jabberwockies as well



It could have been fun

The Chimes of Freedom blog has been keeping an eye on the planned Islamo-Fascism march and posting some interesting links lately, so it's worth having peek there to see what's going on in the exciting world Islamic Hatred in the run up to this week's festivities

Other links worth clicking onto in the interim include; Lord Patel (though his extensive and handsomely remunerated staff appear to be on some kind of wildcat strike at the moment), LWTC247 and its detailed, and I mean detailed, coverage of the Jean Charles de Menezes court case...

JD

...then there's the ever accurate, ever reliable Daily Mash and, of course, Conspiraloon™ Central - they know what's really going on (wink wink)

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Shellfish of the Month

To commemorate that last post on Darwinian evolution and the epic bout of commenting that followed it here’s a picture of a lingulata brachiopod or, as the Japanese like to call them, ミドリシャミセンガイ!!



And this is what they look like cooked...




The interesting thing about the lingula is that specimens found in the waters around Japan are almost identical to ancient Cambrian era fossils which would suggest to a Darwinist that life has been pretty quiet in the waters around Japan for the last half billion years and that lingulata don’t go out very much

However, intriguing and tasty and they are, lingulata are not my favourite shellfish

These are…

The Geoduck

Time for a new Shellfish of the Month sidebar panel methinks

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If everybody looked the same We'd get tired of looking at each other

Racist old scrote and prize-winning plagiarist James Watson

I’m enjoying the irony in this headline immensely…

The Bristol Festival of Ideas has cancelled an appearance by the Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson after a row over his views on race

Presumably the organisers are going to have to have a rethink and repackage their gathering as The Bristol Festival of Nice Ideas from now on

Watson has been quoted as being “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really.”

The hysterical responses to Watson’s comments have proven to be consistently good value – especially those coming from Liberal Humanists who are claiming that Watson’s comments are somehow scientifically inaccurate

In particular, I’ve read some right old cock coming from people, offended by Watson’s comments, who are claiming that on a genetic level there is no such thing as race and that any differences between races are really only skin deep

Yeah, tell that to the sickle cell

People who buy into Darwin claiming that every individual and every sub-group within a species are all equal?!

For fuck's sake

The problem for Liberal Humanists who want to believe that people are all equal is that science will never be able to prove anything of the kind

That’s not to say that Watson isn’t a racist old scrotum

Far from it, Watson is the latest in a long line of racist old scrotums, stretching all the way back to Darwin and beyond

The Daily Mash

Darwinian Evolution was hugely popular amongst the ruling classes in 19th Century England because it gave the stamp of scientific approval to some of their favourite concepts. Concepts such as the inherited genetic superiority of their class, the ‘surplus poor’, the ‘White Man’s burden’ to improve the rest of the world, marvellous ideas like that.

Watson talks like a racist because the logical conclusions of Darwinism are racist

And sexist

And ageist

But the important thing from a Secular Humanist point of view is that Darwinism is not (sic.) a religion, which makes it A1 Number One in their book regardless of the implications of uncritical acceptance

I’ve seen various attempts over the years to pretend that Darwinism isn't implicitly racist/ ageist/ sexist. Most of these arguments boil down to the claim that humanity has learned that collaboration is more productive than competition

But, hey, wouldn’t humanity be even more productive if the people collaborating were all engineered to be genetically superior? Wouldn’t a spot of eugenics help things move along a lot more efficiently?


Even if I didn’t reject Darwinism because I’m pretty certain Life doesn’t work like that, I’d still personally be inclined to reject it because I don’t like the idea of living in society run in accordance with Darwinian principles

And even though I’m not religious I’d much rather live in a society run on Christian or Islamic than Darwinian principles – the belief that all people have equal worth as human beings, that compassion and empathy are worthwhile in themselves, that we are at our best when overcoming misfortune and injustice... unscientific crap like that

The problem is, of course, that so many who claim to be Christians or Muslims aren’t anything of the sort

A group of devout genocidal slave owners busy not practicing what they preach… ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’

Oh, yeah, and having to believe three unbelievable things before breakfast.

That’s a bit of a problem too…

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and a vaguely relevant story that only native-born North Londoners will be able to fully comprehend...

I was sitting in my Mum's lounge yesterday, chatting with one of her cousins, when my Mum came into the room with a plumber who was round to fix her toilet.

She introduced me to him. I stood up, shook his hands and straight away without any warm-up he said (not in a friendly way)...

'You look like an Arsenal supporter. Are you?'

' When I used to go, yes'

'I knew it. I can spot an Arsenal supporter a mile off'

'You a Spurs fan then?'

'Yeah'

then he just glared at me for a few seconds before my Mum led him off towards the bathroom...

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He was asking for it m’lud…

The disgraceful campaign to kill Jean Charles de Menezes' reputation as well as the man took a new turn yesterday...

"Traces of cocaine were found in Jean Charles de Menezes which may have made him act unusually before he was shot dead by firearms officers, a court heard today."

The biggest problem with taking this approach in attempting to justify the execution of Jean Charles is that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that JCdM did act unusually before he was executed

Nope, in spite of two years of shameful, state-sanctioned smears that de Menezes had a dodgy visa, was a wanted rapist and, now, a druggie…

...in spite of the crooked eye-witness testimonies, the magically self-erasing platform CCTV tapes, the magically non-existent house surveillance tapes, the doctored surveillance logs and all the other lies and bullshit…

the police have offered absolutely no evidence that Jean Charles did anything to invite having seven bullets pumped into his head

As fellow Conspiraloon™ Paul commented -

I thought the 'asking for it' defence had gone the way of the dodo...

Absolutely gagging for it - the tasty, flightless fucker...

On top of that, Jean Charles had no coke in his bloodstream anyway. The traces that were found were in his urine not his blood. The blood test for cocaine was reported as being ‘below detectable levels’ which in honest English, an increasingly rare commodity, means that none was found.

So, no, there’s fuck all possibility that the coke traces found in JCdM’s corpse had anything to do with his execution. They do however serve a very useful establishment purpose – as illustrated by a discarded copy of the Daily Star I saw fluttering outside the Oval tube station this afternoon…




Right now pride is what I feel – in our government, in our senior police officers and in our Great British Press

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But, wait, the Stockwell Shooting court case has just thrown up even more reason to burst with pride…

Apparently, the composite picture of Jean Charles de Menezes and wanted 21/7 bombless 'bomber' Hussain Osman, released by the Metropolitan Police to show how similar the two men looked, was manipulated to make de Menezes look more like Osman than he really did...




Well, fuck me

And it’s taken people two years to realise that?

Actually, it didn’t. It’s only being discussed now because the suggestion was made as part of the court case. The fact that the picture may have been doctored prior to release is being reported as being a surprise

?!!

So, presumably, if there hadn’t been a court case no-one in the mainstream press would have thought twice about it

Of course the picture was fucking doctored

One of the many, many scary aspects of the shooting in Stockwell is the fact that, apparently, the super-professional, highly trained observers acting as spotters for London-based state execution squads can’t even spot the rather obvious differences between East Africans (sometimes referred to as 'skinnies'), Latinos (rarely referred to as 'skinnies') or even Mongolians

or maybe they can

Photograph of possible Somalian Islamo terror bastards (note the small calibre rocket launcher and fearsome axe) seen walking down London's beautiful Walworth Road

Photograph of a typical South American family ...not taken on the Walworth Road

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Salvador Dali eat your heart out pt2

WTF?

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dum de dum de dum

So there I was sitting on a southbound train on the Piccadilly Line yesterday when the train was delayed at Manor House station.

The driver apologised and explained that there was a signal problem further down the line.

The train sat there for about fifteen minutes and steadily filled up with people.

And then a couple of London Transport police and one of the station staff started peering into the carriage, checking all the passengers out. The station guard then came into the carriage and said

‘Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, this may sound a little strange but have any of you noticed someone with a rucksack getting on the train between here and Bounds Green who’s been acting in a silly way?’

Silly?

A couple of my fellow passengers began to stare at me - probably something to do with the fact that I had this sitting on my knee…


For the briefest of moments, the temptation to call out ‘Mwuhaahaahahaa!!’ and wave my hands in the air was almost irresistible

But it wouldn’t have been that funny and, besides, someone might have shot me in the face – lots

Not that you have to behave in an unusual way or carry something that could be a bomb to have someone shoot you in the face these days

And, as it turns out from testimony given at the JCdM court case this week, you don’t even have to be mistaken for a wanted terrorist suspect to get shot in the face these days...

• NOT behaving suspiciously – TICK
  
  
• NOT carrying anything that could have been a bomb (unless you swallow this horse shit) – TICK

• Identified as NOT being a wanted terrorist suspect – TICK

Well, that narrows the number of people who could have been shot in the face by the security forces in London that day down to only a few million people

And top marks to the BBC for reporting the fact that ‘special bullets' were used to kill JCdM

‘Special’ being a carefully selected euphemism for hollow points aka dum dums aka ‘manstoppers’




First developed by the British military in the 19th century for putting down fanatical ‘savages’, they were subsequently prohibited from military use by international agreement but have been retained for certain specialised law-enforcement purposes i.e. putting down fanatical savages

Hollow points are exactly the kind of weapon that would be described as disgraceful and sadistically wicked if the 'Bad Guys' are caught using them but as a necessary and effective tool when the Good Guys use them. Kind of like studding explosives with ball bearings or dropping flaming thickened petrol on people.

No doubt there are plenty of people who have no problem with the thought that an undetermined number of itchy-fingered security personal are roaming the streets of London carrying pistols loaded with assassins’ ammunition.

I wouldn’t even try arguing with anyone who believes that this kind of thing is necessary. Partly because they would have a point. If you draw a gun on someone with the intention of killing them what sense is there in not carrying the most lethal ammunition possible?

What I would like to know, especially with the lethality of the bullets used in mind, is why the people who shot JCdM put 7/ 8/ 9 of the fucking things into his head? After about the first two or three was there really any point? And if there was a point why stop at 7/8/9 rounds? Why not 50?

As discussed with a couple of commentators on my last post about the JCdM shooting I’m wary of theorising about things. However, to fire that many ‘manstopping’ rounds into a person’s head suggests that either a deliberate statement was being made or that at least one of the 'highly trained' operatives wandering around London with dum dum bullets that day didn't (doesn’t) know when to stop

…which might explain why the driver of the train was chased down a tunnel and had a gun (presumably loaded with hollow points) held to his head

Maybe there are other explanations. Maybe the guy(s) who shot JCdM could give an account of their tactics and actions which doesn’t sound like a frenzied slaughter. The only problem being, of course, that the IPCC investigation into the shooting has not been published and we’ve already been told that the person(s) who fired the lethal shots won’t be appearing in the current court case

So, whether you are personally comfortable with the events of 22 July 2005 and their implications simply boils down to whether you trust the people who are telling you what happened

I don’t

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And whilst on the subject of who is or isn't making testimony during the current court hearing I'm just gagging to find out if star witness, of 'he was wearing a thickish coat ... sort of out of place for this time of year' fame, Mark Whitby is going to take the stand...

'Everything I'm about to tell you is fucking bollocks. Bollocks which is, coincidentally, exactly the same as the bollocks the police are going to come out with'

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Salvador Dali eat your heart out

I live in a part of the country where local disputes have extended the national mail strike into a second post-less week

To add confusion to injury, The Post Office has just started a new television advertising campaign which aims to play down the ‘Post’ side of its business and talk up all the other products and services on offer.

And, in their aim to distract viewers from the fact that a Post Office without post is just a bank with shit décor, the producers of the new ad have IMHO created a surrealist masterpiece…



What does it all mean? Why the ant powder at the start of the commercial? What kind of alien technology are Royal Mail harnessing to cram such a big office into such a small building? Why aren't the staff protected from their adoring public by the customary walls of two inch thick, sound proof plexiglass? What’s with curious juxtaposition of Land of Hope and Glory playing in the background and the vaguely Marxist sounding talk of The People’s Post Office? WTF does Joan Collins have to do with any of this?

But wait, there’s going to be more…

“Joan Collins will be the first customer to visit a Post Office® branch appearing in living rooms across the UK on Sunday 14 October, in the new campaign, which highlights the wide range of great value products and services available at Post Office® branches.

The series of TV commercials are set in a fictional Post Office® branch which will welcome some famous faces in the coming months, with customers including Westlife, Bill Oddie and Keith Harris and Orville.”

The pain of the waiting is almost too much to bear

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Adam Curtis back on form...

I don't know what kind of tea Adam Curtis was drinking whilst he was putting together the final episode of The Trap but his latest short film featured in the following clip is much more like it...





Personally, I think Curtis only gives a partial explanation for why TV journalism is so crap these days. Yes, TV journalists don't know what's going on but even if they did the chances of them being allowed to explain what is going on are, um, slim.

(cheers to anon for letting me know about this new Curtis film)

As for Charlie Booker, the guy presenting the show which included the Curtis film, I'm not entirely impressed with his Ahmadinejad 'future mushroom cloud fan' line later in the clip. Right now only two countries are hinting about using nukes in the Middle East, and neither of them is Iran.

Later in the same show (not included in the above clip) Charlton, sorry, Charlie also had a bit of a pop at the punters who queued up outside an incompetently, possibly fraudulently managed and certainly insolvent Northern Rock last month for not being financial experts.

Up until the point a reluctant Treasury gave explicit guarantees about the safety of depositors' funds those people queuing up to take their money out of Northern Rock were doing a perfectly sensible thing and anyone who says or implies anything different is talking straight out of their bumhole

- all of which suggests to me that Mr Booker is part of the same fucking problem Adam Curtis is talking about...

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Search for a Star

I'm unashamed about my interest in elitist symbolism hidden in plain view amongst us. I'll also be one of the first to admit that it's often virtually impossible to definitively prove that possible examples of elitist symbolism are deliberate and not just coincidental

though I do have some personal favourites, such as the pentagram-obsessed Washington street plan and some examples nearer to home in London, which I think are pretty hard to deny...

The umpteenth appearance of the Buckingham Pyramid in this blog...

The dollar bill is another example of a design so clearly laden with the symbolism associated with certain fruity little clubs that mainstream sources usually choose to ignore the issue altogether rather than pretend that the symbolism is not there




In comparison, British money has offered much less in the way of easy symbolic pickings which can be identified and decoded by the profane

but the times may be a-changing

A couple of days ago someone suggested that a few minutes spent looking closely at the new £20 note would cheer me up to no end...




£20 notes are a rare event in my back pocket but the other 1/2 happened to have one and, yes, I was entertained, even though she remembered to ask for it back after I'd finished with it...



I won't spoil the fun by drawing any lines, and it's much easier to see in the flesh on an actual note, but the Bank of England appears to have a provocative little something sticking out of its roof. Two things actually

Here's a clue to one of those things taken from the back of the dollar bill


Methinks someone might just be taking the piss...

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edit: OK, three things if you count the sideways Star Fleet logo


but who's to say the Rothschilds don't control that too

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edit2: and whilst on the subject of fruity little elitist clubs and their symbolism, today is, of course, the 700th anniversary of the dissolution of the Knights Templar (or were they? mwuhaahaha!!). No doubt the modern day fruity little clubs which claim to trace their lineage back to this group of weirdo warrior bankers will be celebrating the anniversary, as well as the recent announcement by the Vatican that the the Templars probably weren't quite as naughty as they were made out to be at the time...

Tragically misunderstood?

There again, maybe not

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Support Stop Islamisation of Europe and win a curry!!

Hmmm traditional British food, delicious...

Thanks to Sophia for sending me this little number…


And yes, it is a spoof

The sad thing is that the only real give-away is the last two lines at the bottom referring readers to ‘Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness’ and to Adam Curtis’ The Power of Nightmares

Aside from that the content isn’t much more extreme that plenty of material I’ve seen on the web or even the mainstream press.

This, for example…


is not, as far as I can tell, a spoof

Martin Amis has also been producing some particularly solid work in this area

This Islamo-Fascism Awareness / Stop the Islamisation of Europe stuff is all very confusing to me

Over in America you’ve got a bunch of Zionist Neocons lambasting Muslims for their outrageous treatment of women, homosexuals and ethnic minority groups. Over here in Europe you’ve got neo Nazis planning to come out in support of an agenda clearly being set by the US Pro-Israel lobby – a lobby which presumably contains one or two Jewish people.

Ooooh, the irony

Adolph and the Boys will be turning in their graves (or maybe not)

Is there nothing manufactured hatred of Muslims cannot achieve?

Unfortunately, it’s looking like I won’t be around on 26th October to witness the Islamo-Fascism Awareness march scheduled to take place in London

Rory over at the Chimes of Freedom blog makes an impassioned call for trying to ban the march. I understand the case he is making but I have to confess that I personally am really conflicted on this subject. Partly because my world view is more Gandhi than Trotsky but mostly because I think, given the media's track record when covering these kind of demos and the woeful state of the mainstream Left in the UK, those who are opposed to demos like this are on a hiding to nothing

If the march were to be banned this would be cited as evidence that free speech in the UK has been restricted due to fear of offending Muslims, or even more perniciously because of a fear of Muslim violence. If the march goes ahead and is faced with a Muslim counter demonstration this will be covered by the media as an expression of militant Islam – possibly aided by the now traditional sight of half a dozen guys turning up out of nowhere brandishing a few provocative placards. Potential opposition from much of the mainstream Left will be neutered, as with the invasion of Afghanistan*...

Causes (not) worth dying for #427 - Freedom for oppressed poppies everywhere!!

...by the shamelessly clever tactic of presenting Islamo-Fascism Awareness as being about the rights of women and minorities

It’s a fucker

Particularly when the interests which pull the strings of so many of our politicians, newspapers and, sadly, our increasingly politicised senior policemen are clearly dead set on stoking this kind of shit up

And stoking things up is the name of the game

One lesson I’ve learned as an adult is that if someone tries to provoke me just about the worst thing I can do is to rise to the bait in the way that person wants.

The absolutely No.1 best response to someone attempting to annoy or anger you is to…

Take the piss out of them!!

Taunt them rigid. Rib them senseless. Make it abundantly clear that you don’t give a toss and even, if you’re feeling cocky, ask them if that’s the best they’ve got




That’s not to say that there are not times when a good kicking is in order (if you are physically threatened) but even then if you’ve goaded your opponent into losing it there’s a pretty good chance that will give you an edge. They might even do something daft enough to get arrested, whether the police are happy about having to do that or not

After all, demonstrations are essentially a competitive, sometimes contact, sport and if psyching out an opponent was good enough for Muhammad Ali it has to be worth thinking about. Psyops for the masses...

(and on the subject of psyops, the 15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group homepage makes for fascinating reading - even if only by virtue of the fact that 15POG actually has a homepage)

Whenever I see coverage of Orange Order marches through Catholic areas over in Northern Ireland and the predictable response from the Catholics I always think to myself ‘Can’t you see they’re trying to wind you up?!! They only do it because it annoys you!! The guys behind this want to perpetuate that cycle of hate that gives them power. Have a fucking street party next time they come marching through. Sup a few beers. Wear a silly hat or two yourselves. Crack a few gags. They'll give up eventually…’

The Men from Del Monte say No!!

It’s got to be worth a try at least once or twice

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* I've no doubt that the online Lefties who slagged off myself and anti-Muslim (sic.) conspiRACISTS like me for suggesting that the occupation of Afghanistan and Kosovo and the relatively easy ride given to Balkan gangs in the UK might just possibly have something to do with the multibillion$, state-sanctioned heroin trade will be turning out to oppose the SIOE march this month in droves...

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New Tube Terror Shooting CCTV Released

I've just popped a Sky News report on the recently released CCTV footage of JCdM at Stockwell Station onto Youtube

I didn't ask Rupert for permission beforehand so it might not stay up for very long



If you look very carefully at the footage it is clear that JCdM could easily have been carrying an invisible suicide bomb and that police and media accounts of the events leading up to his shooting were 100% accurate.

'What happened at Stockwell' - courtesy of the BBC

My spooky psychic powers are working overtime again and telling me that it's almost time to be told to put the events at Stockwell behind us and move on. There have been two independent investigations and a court case and any further investigation would be both costly and pointless . Also, think about the distress caused to the bereaved family by endlessly re-examining the tragic events over and over again, etc etc...

And in related developments in the ongoing War on Terror, that Intellectual Colossus, Purveyor of Truth™ and nominal head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair has recently gone on the record to say...

"The number of the conspiracies, the number of conspirators within those conspiracies and the magnitude of the ambition, in terms of destruction and loss of life, is mounting; has continued to mount, is increasing year by year"

For once, I agree with him wholeheartedly

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Do You Want to See Something Really Scary?

If you pop over to the Northern Rock homepage right now - this is what you'll see...




Further news for all Northern Rock customers

Northern Rock has agreed new guarantee arrangements with the Bank of England and H.M Treasury, which brings enhanced protection for all our customers during the current instability in the financial markets.

This protects all retail savings in all accounts, regardless of the amount deposited and applies to all existing and new products.

You can be sure that all retail savings - for both existing and new customers – remain guaranteed, safe and secure.

Everyone at Northern Rock continues to work hard to ensure our customers enjoy a high standard of service and we thank you for your confidence in us.


WTF!!?

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A fucked up, immoral mess...

That report I link to in my previous post about the risk of the UK becoming a Dystopian surveillance state gets especially hung-up on the fact that many of the increased powers being taken by the state are, in turn, delegated to private companies

I share the authors’ seemingly out-dated view that there are some things that money can’t buy and therefore probably best not left to profit making entities to manage

Employing soldiers is quite high up on the list

People who bear arms for money have always had a certain stigma attached to their profession. Which is why so much effort has gone into rebranding mercenaries as ‘contractors’ in recent years. It’s unlikely that many people would give a fuck about stories of mercenaries being killed by Iraqi insurgents in quite the same way as hearing that ‘contractors’ have been done away with

People who serve in armies generally don’t carry that stigma and are usually accorded respect by most people.

That respect comes from the belief that those soldiers serve for something more than financial reward and have undertaken to risk their lives to protect the rest of us whilst we sleep peacefully in our beds

And even when our soldiers are stuck into some shitty, questionable situations by our politicians we still want to believe that our soldiers will do their honourable best to deal with those shitty, questionable situations

I think most of our soldiers want to believe that too

Which gets me onto a story someone emailed me (thanks AF)…

The news that a US National Guardswoman serving in Iraq, Ciara Durkin, was found shot in the head in Bagram Airbase last month


The US military initially told Durkin’s family that she died in action but now isn’t quite so sure.

The fact that Durkin was working as a finance clerk, had recently told family members that she had discovered something untoward and had urged them to press for an investigation in the event of her death does raise one or two questions

As does the fact that the list of US and UK soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq who have either a) been murdered, or b) so appalled by the immorality of corporate kleptowar that they’ve killed themselves, is beginning to stack up…


Colonel Ted Westhusing


A devout Catholic, father of three and a specialist in military ethics. Apparently he was so disgusted with the corruption of the mercenary contractor company he was liaising with and the reluctance of his superiors to deal with it that he shot himself in the head a month before he was due to return home. His suicide note read ‘I am sullied no more’



Corporal Pat Tillman


A high profile recruit to the US armed forces who gave up a lucrative football career to serve his country. He was killed in action in Afghanistan and awarded a nice shiny posthumous medal for bravery in combat. His family later discovered that the medal citation was a pack of lies, that Tillman was shot in the face at close range with an American rifle and that evidence was deliberately destroyed immediately after his death. They’re not best pleased…



Apparently, Corporal Tillman was planning to return home and say one or two negative things about the war at the end of his tour...




Captain Ken Masters


A father of two and the British Military investigator in charge of the investigation into those two British soldiers caught driving around Basra in a car full of weapons dressed as Iraqis

Captain Masters didn’t complete the investigation and apparently decided to hang himself instead


Staff Sergeant Denise Rose


Another British Military investigator who committed suicide in Basra, after spending only a month in Iraq

The investigation into her death implied that the suicide had something to do with her being rebuked for being drunk in uniform the day before…


I’m not putting forward any cleverly insightful conclusions about these stories. However, a little Googling of these people’s names and some reading up on the circumstances surrounding their deaths paints a picture of a totally fucked up mess, in Afghanistan and Iraq. A fucked up, immoral mess that’s killing people who are trying to do their best and killing those people in more ways than the bastards behind these wars want us to think about

.

The more of this shi*t we are subject to the sooner people will start taking it down

There’s an amusing little piece on the Sunday Herald website entitled UK 2017: under surveillance ...

“It is a chilling, dystopian account of what Britain will look like 10 years from now: a world in which Fortress Britain uses fleets of tiny spy-planes to watch its citizens, of Minority Report-style pre-emptive justice, of an underclass trapped in sink-estate ghettos under constant state surveillance, of worker drones forced to take on the lifestyle and values of the mega-corporation they work for, and of the super-rich hiding out in gated communities constantly monitored by cameras and private security guards.

This Orwellian vision of the future was compiled on the orders of the UK's information commissioner - the independent watchdog meant to guard against government and private companies invading the privacy of British citizens and exploiting the masses of information currently held on each and every one of us - by the Surveillance Studies Network, a group of academics…”


It’s worth a read and the report it quotes from is nowhere near as sensationalist, either in its predictions or timescales, as it could have been

My own take on this subject is that sooner or later we’re going to reach a tipping point with all these cameras and databases. Once that tipping point is reached a significant number of people are going to discover a new found sense of purpose in this soulless, consumerist prison of a society which corporations are creating around us.

and that purpose will be to fuck those corporations' precious little cameras and databases up

Non violently of course

Looking forward to it…

Lots

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And on Channel 4 tonight... (revisited for the umpteenth time)

(Fear is what I feel)

Per the Radio Times website…

The Cult of the Suicide Bomber
Highlight

Monday 08 October
8:00pm - 9:00pm
Channel 4

The shocking delusion and warped ideology of suicide bombers are brought into sharp focus by former CIA agent Robert Baer in the third instalment of his exemplary series. He talks to two failed suicide bombers in Afghanistan (though we're not told why their plan didn't succeed). Little more than boys, these 17-year-olds are naive enough to believe that God would detonate their explosive vests, rather than the more prosaic explanation of a remotely operated device. The pair were even promised that virgins would wait at the bomb site to lead them to paradise. Baer visits Israel, where the government built a $1.5 billion wall aimed at stopping Palestinian suicide bombers, and offers his own ideas about how self-radicalising young people can be turned away from this murderous path.


And on BBC1 last week...

Panorama: ‘How I Became a Muslim Extremist’ (aka ‘Idiot joins legal organisation, does nothing, then leaves legal organisation’)


It's great to see the major television networks doing their warm up acts for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week later on in the month

It's just as well everything is so quiet in the Middle East at the moment, otherwise paranoid cynics might start thinking people are being softened up for something

...again

And, as I’ve said a few times before, I think it’s absolutely brilliant how these shows frequently turn to the Israelis for advice on how to deal with terrorism. They’ve only been at if for about 60 years and starting to show some real progress now that they’ve hit upon a winning formula of building enormous great fucking walls all over the place, blanketing the country with checkpoints, demolishing entire neighbourhoods and engaging in perpetual low level conflict with their neighbours




Yup, we’ve got a lot to learn from those guys and the sooner we start taking a leaf or two out of their book the better

though it is a bit of a shame how these TV shows don’t actually explain that suicide bombing started as a tactic to use against militarily superior foes, rather than as an ideology

And nor do these programs get round to explaining why it is that we’re supposed to think that suicide bombs are somehow scarier or more dangerous than other kinds of bombs...

• Do suicide bombs somehow hurt more than, say, IRA bombs (the threat of which we somehow managed to live with without being encouraged by our establishment to shit our pants on a daily basis) because the guys carrying them blow up with them?
  
  (I've actually heard a couple of senior Metropolitan Police officers explain that the difference between IRA and Islamic terror attacks is that the Islamic terror attacks are planned to cause maximum loss of life in a way that IRA bombs weren't. That would be non-lethal IRA bombs like the one that went off in Omagh...
  
  
  ...come to think of it, we're still not sure who was really behind the Omagh bomb so maybe those coppers have a point)

• Are suicide bombs more horrific than 2,500lbs of laser guided, high fragmentation unpleasantness dropped from a plane piloted by someone who doesn't kill himself in the process?

• Would ‘suicide’ bombs still hurt more if the guys carrying them did not know they were carrying them?

Or, more to the point…

• Why do supposedly responsible and thoughtful television companies make documentaries that claim to explain suicide bombing but restrict themselves to spouting agenda-laden bollocks instead

That’s a rhetorical question btw

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Make room for the Mushrooms

I can’t speak for the rest of the country but it’s turning out to be a rubbish year for mushrooms, especially porcini, in South East England

Photograph of porcini in action - NOT taken this year

Though, having said that, there’s a least one person who seems to be getting his hands on adequate quantities of his favourite edible funghi…



and in case anyone is a) interested and b) missed it, David Shayler has set up his own Youtube TV Channel - ‘Shayler TV’

Episode 1 (in all its excrutiating messianic glory)…



I find it difficult to be totally scathing about someone who is advocating universal compassion and understanding but that’s not the stuff I have a problem with

Painful, simply painful…

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Shitipedia - Redux

Kudos to DE for trying to set up a Wikipedia entry for ‘Common Purpose’

Though, sadly, it doesn't appear to have lasted very long

I did manage to catch sight of the entry before it was deleted but I didn’t have enough time to make my own edit or contribution

The reason I saw given for the entry’s impending deletion was that the article didn’t indicate how important ‘Common Purpose’ was

So, that’s something to bear in mind whenever using Wikipedia as a resource. Only important stuff gets in there...

(edit: The entry for CP on Wikipedia appears to be back up now - thanks Tony)

I’ve linked and referred people to Wikipedia a lot over the last few years and, even though I’ll probably continue to do so in a limited way, I’m going to consciously cut down on my implied support for what is increasingly turning out to be a bag of old shite

My 'favourite' recent example of Wikipedia’s shiteness is its entry on the anthrax attacks that took place immediately after 9/11. Anyone who has read around the subject will be aware that the anthrax in question came from a US military lab and that the FBI investigation into the attacks dropped off the media radar rather quickly once the source of the anthrax was established. Anyone doing some reading will also be aware that a guy called Philip Zack has one or two questions to answer about the goings on in that particular lab

"Death to Zionist-loving American Pigs!! Yours Sincerely, A. Muslim ( PS If undelivered please return to Fort Detrick, Maryland) "

And yet, for some reason, Dr Phil doesn’t get a single mention anywhere at all in Wikipedia’s copious entry on the anthrax attacks

That’s one example. I have plenty of others

…as does the guy behind the software which traces Wikipedia edits that got so much publicity a couple months ago

Given all that it seems only fair that Wikipedia’s entry on Operation Mockingbird (the name given to the Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media) is currently itself under threat of the axe...

If Winston Smith were a real person he'd feel right at home with Wikipedia

Because, as we all know, in spite of all those ex-spooks who claim that 90%+ of intelligence operations are about planting information rather than gathering intelligence, our intelligence services wouldn’t dream of covertly influencing the media in any way at all

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The Police State is Here

Yes, I know this guy is obsessed but his work, and the way he goes about his work, pleasures me immensely

and top marks to him for pointing out to a couple of our policemen that, whether they are happy about it or not, their uniforms are plastered with Masonic symbolism...

This electronic All Seeing Eye appears to have a policeman in a silly hat attached to it

A honorary lifetime Conspiraloon™ Alliance membership is winging his way because, as we all know, being the servant of a fruity little secret club is not insane but pointing out that other people are is

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edit: and whilst on the subject of police logos, I noticed that a member of the public has thoughtfully submitted their own suggestion for a new Metropolitan Police motto on a sign on the Brixton Road today; written in Latin, no less, to give it that extra touch of class...





Sarcasm aside, I think it's great that our police put up notices all round South London to remind people that they are actually operating here

Very reassuring...

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The Common Enemy revisited - pt2

and back to Common Purpose for a moment...

Unlike the ‘Little Englanders’ I referred to in my earlier post I personally doubt very much if an organisation like Common Purpose could ever be the all powerful demon they think it to be

What it could very easily be is part of that network of unaccountable, droid-nurturing lobby groups and think thanks which now envelops the political process and has replaced ideology and conviction with 'glittering generalities'

I have a particularly big problem with the Fascistic (that word again) blurring of the conceptual lines between a public service such as the police or prison service and privately owned companies - a blurring process which organisations like Common Purpose help to promote

Maybe I am prisoner of my personal political ideology but I believe that there is a big difference between running a supermarket and running a police force

There are some services that are arguably best run as monopolies – water supply is the first that comes to mind. Unless that is someone can make a compelling case for laying two competing sets of pipes in our towns and cities

And giving monopolies on essential services over to private ownership is rarely a good idea

There are other services which potentially could compete with each other but it is probably best if they don’t – I’d suggest that having two different police forces or armies competing with each other on the high street would be insane

Another point to consider is that many of our public services exist because we, as citizens, give up our rights to act for ourselves on the understanding that certain activities, such as dispensing justice, might be better achieved collectively

"You know I am no stranger. I know rules are a bore. But just to keep you from danger I am the Law"

But what happens when the politicians we have given up our freedom of action to hand those powers over to privately controlled corporations?

Is a policeman still a public servant if he works for a privately controlled company?

...or thinks, acts and talks like he's working for a privately controlled company?

Would that make someone like Jean Charles de Menezes a dissatisfied customer?




Mentioning JCdM is not quite as gratuitous as it might seem, as the person who gave the order for him to be shot in the face is a Common Purpose graduate

And no, I am not implying that Common Purpose style leadership training turns people in psycho killers but if I had been the person who paid for that particular graduate’s leadership course I’d be looking for my money back...




That’s one story that hasn’t made it’s way onto the Common Purpose graduate case history webpage

It makes much more sense to think about these kind of leadership courses not so much as being about training as being part of a selection process. You can’t turn someone into a leader in a couple of weeks. You can however identify the kind of people your system of control is based on and equip them with the language they need to be identifiable to each other

... a way of looking at things which can help make sense of the fact that the person in command of the Stockwell operation was promoted to even higher office shortly after presiding over what was, even by official accounts, a murderous fuck up

Competence and preferment do not necessarily go hand in hand in our system of governance. There are other qualities much higher on the list of selection criteria

Given the increased blurring of the distinction between public service and private enterprise, it seems only appropriate that the only court case to be heard as the result of JCdM’s execution is being held under Health and Safety at work legislation. Even though I doubt very much if anyone will be held accountable as a result of the case it has at least forced the papers to report a curious incident which happened immediately after JCdM was shot...




Aside from a press statement issued by the driver’s union the following day, the news that the police (sic.) chased the train driver down a tunnel and jammed a gun in his face has not been investigated by any of the mainstream media. Come to think of I don't even think the press release was reported at the time

The significance of this story is, to my mind anyway, that if the police had followed an alleged suspect suicide bomber all the way from his home to Stockwell station why on earth would they feel the need to start running around pointing guns at other people, especially the driver of the fucking train?

And as for the $64,000 question – ‘Why did the police think a guy in thin clothing, carrying no bags, was a suicide bomber in the first place?’ – well, forget it…

The official story continues to make no sense – big time



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PS - The Antagonist appears to be in the process of resuscitating 'Anything that defies my sense of reason' - a blog that has frequently touched on the events of July 2005 and their consequences, as well as all sorts of other bits and bobs. I'm glad to see it breathing again


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The Common Enemy revisited - pt1

Just to clarify a couple of points from that last post...

My suggestion that people with contrasting ’Left’ and ‘Right’ Wing views might have a common enemy and their own common purpose is not the same thing as suggesting that racism, xenophobia or Hate in general is something that people can overlook.

However, I do find it fascinating how people’s opposition to something like expansion of the role of the EU for example is framed and shaped by their political views

• Those with right-leaning beliefs who oppose the EU may do so on the basis that it impinges on national sovereignty

• Those with left leaning beliefs who oppose the EU may do so on the basis that it is undemocratic and initiatives such as a common currency make it much easier for corporations to shift capital and jobs from place to place, playing one group of workers against the other

The underlying causes for their rejection of the EU as it stands are essentially very similar – a fear of unrepresentative elitist hegemony – but that shared concern is obscured by some of the baggage associated with Left and Ring Wing belief systems

…and the language people use

When I think about the possible negative impact of the EU my concern is that it may become a fully Fascist entity - a seamless integration of industry and government, controlled by an unaccountable few

Yet other people, more Right Wing people, chuck terms like ‘Communist’ and ‘Marxist’ around when talking about the EU

So, is the EU really all things to all people - Communist, Marxist and Fascist - or is the language we use letting us down?

I am not discounting the fact that there are fundamental differences between people with Left and Right Wing views of how the world should work but I do believe that flexibility of thought is constrained by mass media promotion of restrictive terminology and pre-packaged ideology

I also believe that this is deliberate

Maybe I’ve read Orwell too many times

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