Saturday

We are funny things, we hairless monkeys. Well Ok, apes. In the last 48 hours, our county town has had a couple of rapes, at least one violent assault that wasn't a rape, some bike thefts. There were probably many other crimes reported or otherwise. Ok, you may wonder where I am going with this. Now rape is an evil crime, I think all of us can agree. So, is an arranged marriage rape? As an atheist, I would say yes. The problem that  arises here is the one of consent. The 'victim' may well feel duty bound to acquiesce, but never the less, even if she does not, the outcome for her will be just the same. Ergo, she acquiesces. Therefore no crime, except the obvious moral one. Now, to me, a real man would never, ever, accept this. Only someone misled by either; alcohol or religion would.
The funny thing is the assault. One of the local tossers was apparently gobbing off at someone in the street, they took umbrage and left him laid out on the pavement. We spent some time trying to find the assailant, but we didn't get a good description at first, and so failed to find him. The most amusing thing about this is that tomorrow we will almost certainly be searching for the victim, because he will be a; pissed, b; shoplifting, and finally, c; assaulting someone. Of course, after all this, even if all the scrotes are caught, and then proven guilty, we know nothing meaningful will be done to them. Rapists should be well hung. By their parts. From a tree.

Tuesday

   Somebody thought that Tuesday needed washing. It's been widdling it down all day. Now it's foggy. Now for you thickies out there, driving with your fog lights on in the dark; Turn the damned things OFF. If you don't know why you shouldn't use them at night, you really shouldn't be allowed to drive at any time.
   Big story today seems to be the proposed changes to the Welfare System. It transpires that some 'families' are receiving in excess of £30,000 per year. This is more that me and the Boss bring in, and nearly as much as our daughters would spend if we let them. Now it really puzzles me, claims are made that it will hurt children and the disabled. Firstly, no one will wilfully withhold support for the genuinely disabled. And I doubt for a minute that any genuine disabled persons will mind being asked to prove their disability. Obviously autism and similar disability must be taken into account. As for hurting children, I suppose them not getting the latest iPad, Nintendo, and what have you, and watching/playing them on a 56" 3D TV will be a bit of a wrench. It 'll be worse for those parents that think that the child benefits are for their fags, drugs and booze. I am thoroughly fed up of paying for parasites who's only occupation seems to be to breed more and more.

On Censorship

Although I don't agree with censorship in general. I will admit that keeping certain things away from children is a good thing. Obviously, children, as they grow up will find ways around your censors. If they don't, there is either something wrong with them, or worse, something wrong with you. The important thing is; when they find that they are being, or have been, prevented from seeing something, it is important that you can explain why you tried to protect them from it. Another time censoring things is beneficial, even crucial, is during a police investigation and subsequent court case. Occasions when the meeja have printed things without any thought except to their own coffers, have prejudiced sensitive cases. On other occasions when someone has been arrested, the meeja have run stories about the arrested person. When they were subsequently proven innocent, the meeja does nothing to recompense their victim, but just go on to ruin someone else's life.   Censorship in 'news' papers, or in the meeja in general is rife. Anyone with money can prevent stories being written about them, even if the stories are true. However, at the other end of the scale, papers can, and often do, make things up. If it you they are libeling and you are not loaded with money, you can safely say your reputation will be shot. Even if you put up a fight and win, the best you can expect is a retraction, printed upside down in 1 point, on the bottom of page 35. Or perhaps costs. Seriously out of pocket you will be.
Now as we know, the Americans (Well, not all of them) appear to want to censor the internet. Their excuse is Anti-Piracy. Well, I suspect that will be doomed to failure. America. Where people have guns, and strong views on the freedom of speech. I suspect, that if they got their way, it wouldn't be just Anti-Piracy, but electronic McCarthyism. No proof would be needed, nor proffered, for 'wrong' doing, they will cheerfully infringe other countries rights too. This will play nicely into the hands of other loony countries, removing even the faint opportunity of free speech of their beleaguered populace. 

Found Films

There was I, sitting in front of the TV with the remote controls! It wasn't even my birthday, but the girls had let me loose with the remote controls! Wheeee. But of course, at first glance there was nothing on. Nor at second. However, I stumbled across  The World's Fastest Indian . It was one of those films that makes you realise that the world isn't full of people being nasty to each other, or trying to get one up on someone. On a different tack, over the holiday period we found 'Stardust', a superb fairy story for adults. Based on the story by Neil Gaiman, it has excellent characters, beautiful filming. Well, we thought so anyway. I find it odd that the best films are the ones that you stumble upon without anticipation. Ok, I have even found that by going to the cinema, ( not that I have been for years, it's way too expensive. Shame really, because many films are only really good on a huge screen, with huge sound ) not actually knowing what the film was about does improve the experience. No hype, no anticipation.

Friday 13th. A mixed day.

One of those days. 13th. Friday. My job allows me to see things the general public never see. Things that, others see routinely. I am only a passive observer. Today I witnessed at least two lives spoiled in an avoidable RTC. The driver of the car is physically ok, the bike rider? Didn't look good, all the time until the ambulance took the rider away, there was no movement. I witnessed pissed up scum racially abusing people who were doing nothing wrong and showed incredible tolerance, by not retaliating. I would have retaliated in spades. The same scum were pissed up again today. We taxpayers pay for their awful lifestyle with benefits they do not deserve, their 'rights' trump everyone else's. They get arrested, but released without any meaningful punishment. If they get fined, they don't pay, a custodial sentence will never be handed down. We should bring back the stocks.

Comfort

It's a funny world. I wonder what makes you comfortable? Now for me, I cannot sit down without reading something. I much prefer to read than to watch TV. But some where in god's own county,  (if there was a god, which of course there isn't). There is a place to just sit in front of the fire, warming one's toes. A book isn't necessary, the flames are fascinating, never the same. Sparks. Different woods burn in a different way, oaks pick up a lot of sand, causes lots of sparks and minor explosions. Hearth rugs are full of holes. Hearth dogs tend to get singed, but it is so nice to lie there, and sleep, to dream, the rabbits are easier to catch, especially when you are old.

Time

My youngest daughter asked  me what the time was, so I told her it was the way we humans divide up the day into equal parts. This, she said, was not very helpful. It made me wonder too. I mean, what is time?  The way we measure time is so arbitrary. For instance, the year we are in, 2012, what does that actually mean? 2012 years since someone was born, or from when he died (only apparently he didn't die, so how would you start the calendar?). Well, no it isn't, the calendar has been changed a few times since then. And the best guess is that it is between at least 4 and 40 years out. For any system of measurement, it's that's not very accurate. The Roman calendar was even weirder, never did get my head around that one. In Saudia, it's 1433. Which probably accounts for a lot of things. Ok, so where would we count from? And does it matter? Well, as far as it goes, I suppose so long as we all agree on the start date, no worries, 2012 it is then.
As for time in the sense of seconds/minutes/hours, they are still arbitrary, but again we have 'agreed' on their duration, and use them to define other things. Even distances can be measured by time; In China I believe it is/was, distances were measured by time, this made it possible for the distance between two places be different, depending if you were travelling up hill or down. Which actually makes sense if you are travelling on foot.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time