Happy Christmas 2020

Well another visit from Santa next week ....

Santa Had Been Warned Not To Miss My Chimney
Or There Would Be Consequences

.... NOT!

Cure Worse Than The Bite

We are at that time of the year when the Christmas Party season is, or would be in full swing.

Social Distancing Killed Santa's Office Party ....

As this post is written with the bars still under the cold dead hand of the social distancing rules of Tier2 and Tier3, its possible that there will be no Christmas office parties, or after 'works, do's' .... such is the party killing impact of the  new rules.

Very Strange Values

The UK's now has very skewed values ...

What Is A Hate Crime?

Preach hate and terrorism regularly in a mosque, or on the open streets outside a mosque for all to hear and see ...

An Actors Life For Me

Of course dying is part of an actors lot ....

Acting In A Long Running Play Can Kill You ...

.... and on the stage, in a long run some parts call for them to die every night for months, or even years on end.

Bee Kind To Bee's

Cherise Mulzac first noticed bees in her East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York apartment in 2016 ....

Bee Invasion - Honey Pot.

 

..... but didn't really think about it. However when in 2017 she touched the walls of her apartment and found honey dripping down the walls, she knew she had a problem.

Old Wood

In 2016 Europe's oldest tree was found to be a Bosnian Pine .....

Bosnian Pine Adonis Could Have Seen
Byzantine Emperror Romanos I Lekapenos .......

.... Growing in the highlands of Northern Greece.

A Slow Eradication

Its almost impossible to stress enough how many hypocritical double standards there are between the way in which some societies treat religious minorities (Christians especially) in their countries ...

Armenian's Being Marched To Their Fates in WWI

..... and the protections and liberties they demand while living in our societies.

Brenda's Beaver

After last weeks alleged beaver tale, I bring you the now infamous story of Brenda's Beaver ....

Brenda's Beaver .... It Needs A Trim ... Apparently.

..... a child's book that allegedly was handed out to little children, in at least one of England's schools.

Ghostly Film Shows

In Thailand they believe in Ghosts and Spirits ......

Preta - The Hungry Ghost Is An Old Thai Belief ....

..... They believe in them a lot. Its part of the Buddhist culture of the country.

PISA Rows

Every few years of so, there is a row caused by the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) scores ....

Anti-American Headline For No Reason ....

 

..... these are measures of educational attainment for 15 year olds across the globe.

Frances Neo-Reactionnaire Philosphers

In the Europe, almost beyond the understanding of the Left, and the media that support the post 1968 social consensus .....

The Néo-Réactionnaires Of France Challenge The Old Consensus ...... 

..... the right wing of politics is rising.

Forfana's Beaver Spotted

In the Anglo-Saxon world, even the mention of beaver gets a snigger ....

Clean Beavers Is A Meme ......

...... well from men.

Jack The Book Ripper

Police in Herne Bay Kent, England have been left without a shred of evidence ....

Jack The Book Ripper Of Herne Bay

.... after some of the towns charity shops, and its public library was subjected to a spate of attacks on books.

Not Best Friends Anymore?

Its rather disturbing that the incoming US President Joseph Biden apparently has an unhealthy interest in what happens in Britain ....

Wannabe Genial Irish Man or Angry Leprechaun As President

 ...... while absolutely none in the the real worlds hotspots and issues .....

The Tiers Keep Falling

I suspect that we are all secretly beginning to think that we will never get out of the Covid-19 mess.

A Sad But Increasingly Common Sight In The UK

We have no bars and we have no shows .... the vaccines (when they actually arrive), will probably be needed annually, forever.

Last Round Up

We sometimes think of cows as somewhat stupid ...

"Stupid Cow" Not Always Fair - Just Very Curious ....

..... we even use the phrase "You stupid cow." .... to signify this fact.

The Real Elephants In The Room

There's bad neighbours and

Hells Angels As Neighbours Might Not Be Your First Choice

..... then there's BAD NEIGHBOURS

Flying Tanks

The 1930's and 1940's were certainly an inventive era for aircraft design .....

Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" Flew in 1947 - The Largest Flying Boat Ever Built.

I guess it was because there was not a firm understanding of what was, and wasn't possible .... or even what was actually desirable in an aircraft.

Post Religious Decline

A recent report indicated that Muslims have the strongest faith in modern Britain .....

Britain's Main Religions ....

..... with 88 per cent of Muslims believing there is a God, while only the Christians from the smaller evangelical (often Black) churches come close to the same levels of certainty, with 71 per cent of those questioned believing in Gods existence. 

Wabbit Island Is Purrfect

Now if there is anything more cute than puppies and kittens ....

Who Could Resist This?

... its got to be baby bunnies

The Goats That Ate The World

Invasive plants and animals are part of the curse of modern forms of transport and trade .....

Nothing Can Eat The Poisonous Cane Toad And Live .....

.... and the cane toad in Australia is perhaps the poster boy of introductions that have gone spectacularly wrong.

Some Don't Do Irony Do They?

Ruby Hamad is another Australian feminist, in something like the Germaine Greer model (although as Ms Greer is apparently 'gender advantaged within immutable white power structures', Ms Hamad may not like that direct comparison) .....

Germaine Greer The Original Aussie Feminist
Has Had Her Own Go At White Female Culture ...

..... But with the extra chip on her shoulder in that she identifies as an Arab/Australian.

Bird Brained

In the Black Sea region of Northern Turkey, is the home of a very unique language, comprised of whistling.

Whistling Up The Kids Or Talking To The Neighbours ......

Its called called kuş dili.

In The Presence Of Greatness

We all have moments when we feel the divine ....

The Vishnu Kalki Avatar As Many Expect Him

.... or even the sublime.

Sometimes it comes at useful times, and other times not. But its part of the human experience, whether we like to admit it or not.

Pirate Kings

With the modern pirates of Somalia and Nigeria etc

Somali Pirates Are Small Operations - Not Like The "Golden Age Pirates"

..... the aim seems to be either to ransom the crew, the ship or both. Theft in of itself is not the direct aim.

A Catalogue Of Failure

As we are all aware the UK government's track and trace software and program ....

Track and Trace Failures Predictable

..... has been largely a complete balls up.

Life Imitates Art

I vaguely remember that the Power Rangers were a kids craze on TV, having pushed the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles into the back ground.

The Power Rangers Were After My Time ....... Thank God!

This was in the early mid 1990s, and I was well past the age where it would have impacted me in anyway,

Peoples Of A Closed Book

Anyone deemed to be 'People of the Book' (Non Muslims, but who were following a monotheistic Abrahamic religion, that is older than Islam - But there are no hard and fast rules on this), and living in an Islamic nation, usually under Sharia Law, were given a number of rights ...

People Of The Book - May Not Share The Same God Or Beliefs ......

.... These rights were limited, casting them as dhimmi, a position not dissimilar to women and slaves in that they had restricted rights, and for the dhimmi this included such things as the right to freely practice their faith in private, and to receive state protection (sort of). 

Economic And Social - Electoral Brinkmanship

As we edge toward the US Presidential election day on November the third ....

Same Old Politics In The "New Normal" ....

... the political stakes grow higher.

The Last Broadcast

The final notes we hear just before Gabriel's trumpet sounds ....

The Last Broadcast? .....

..... and the dead prepare to rise (regardless of whether its a man made event, or at the last judgement itself), may well be a sign off by our TV presenters and Broadcasters ..... that alone is a rather chilling thought ... and what would they play?.

Dowsing For Beginners

Now I don't know about you .....

18th Century Illustration Of French Dowser ....

But I have always been fascinated by dowsing .... you know, two bits of bent wire crossing, apparently spontaneously, and signifying that something lies below, or that lines of a force exists.

Political Deaths Matter

The US federal system has resumed executions after a 17 year hiatus, even if many states have not.

Lee, Purkey, and Honken - All Executed 2020.

The reasons given in a statement were that  "Under administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals. The Justice Department upholds the rule of law - and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system."

A Real Pain

So here we are again ......

Abbey Road Under Covid-19 Lock-down ....

Half the country in ĺock-down, aka tier 3, or in the case of Greater Manchester, apparently being allowed to ignore the governments instructions while the Mayor argues about it.

Car Capers And Dumb Asses

Norfolk constabulary stopped a Peugeot 206 in King's Lynn, Norfolk because it was missing a front bumper and a side section, and its tyres were flat.

Rust Bucket

 

But they were stunned when they found it had no steering wheel, with a set of mole grips being used for steering, and the driver using an upturned bucket for a seat.

Money Eating Snakes

Some criminals, don't make much effort to get away with their crimes  .....

Wanted - A Brain.

For instance, a Nigerian sales clerk for the Nigerian examination board has been suspended, after she told auditors that a snake had eaten 36m Naira ( $100,000 or £72,250), in bank notes.

Fictional Bloggers

Two fictional web characters ...

Nom De Plume's Are Normal For Most Bloggers, But Also Vital For Some

... from two different cultures, but the same respect from their loyal supporters.

Monsters Walk Among Us

In India, rape attacks have continued on a depressingly regular basis .....

Rape Protests In India Are An Annual Event It Seems ....

.......despite the outcries, and apparently undeterred by the changes in the Indian law.

The Wild Rover

When a man left his £110k Range Rover with a parking firm at Manchester Airport he fully expected to see it when he returned from his holiday in Majorca.

Careless Parking ......

What he didn't expect was that it would be, as he described it "smashed to smithereens" ...

Freddy Fraudster Finds Friends

For some people, enough is not enough .....

Cash Is King When Hiding Money ......

Richard Albert Cocks (Dickie Cocks?), a retired former Taxi driver, who lived in St Clements on the Island of Jersey is one such.

Half Forgotten - The Water Poet

The passing of the centuries can be cruel or kind to reputations .....

John Taylor "The Water Poet"

Take Elizabethan John Taylor .... Who? I almost hear you think.

Knife Kriminals

With the ever continuing rise in ethnic on ethnic murders (notwithstanding the BLM protests, which are aimed entirely at the wrong issues) ...,

Looks Like My Kitchen Drawers ..... Not Joking!

.... especially in London, where it seems to be linked to postcode gangs (just like the USA's gangs in fact) .... there is the ever more prevalent use of knives and bladed weapons in the attacks.

The Tale Of The Lonesome Pine

In 1882 or sometime shortly after that ....

This Old Lonesome Pine Could Tell A Story ...... A Cowboys Last Stand?

...... a cowboy, miner or trapper in the Great Basin Desert in the eastern part of Nevada, left his expensive Winchester rifle leaning against a 5,000-year-old, lonesome pine tree in a mountain forest ....

Bums Gold

Now I have heard of  fools gold ....

Golden Backsides Don't Guarantee Bums Gold

But not bums gold!

Buyer Beware

During the lock down, my interactions with a well known auction site increased considerably ....

On-Line Auction Site Has Seen A Lot Of Activity

.... mostly this has been odds and sods, or books, and the transactions have gone smoothly enough ... just one lost in the post (which I believed as the lady was upset about it).

Animals On Parade

These men were convicted and sentenced in December 2019 ... just before our judicial system ground to a halt ....

Animals On Parade ....Ali Sultan, Shafiq Younas, Amjad Hussain and Mohammad Rizwan

.... to between four and a half, and eight years in prison, for raping and prostituting young teens in Telford the early 2000's.

Crocodile Mania

A Russian man who took his pet crocodile with him to the Black Sea beach resort of Anapa was arrested .... No surprise there really.

Crocodiles On A Lead Make For Nervous
Owners .... As Well As Song And Dancers

The surprise was perhaps that he thought he wouldn't be arrested, after he let children on the beach stroke and pet it.

PETA Wool Worrying

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) the animal rights group, are prone to moments of ridiculousness which harms their cause.

The World Record Wool Weight For Unshorn Sheep - 40kg

They seem to think that sheep object to being sworn at, and that shearing sheep is some form of sheep cruelty (have they ever seen a sheep that isn't shorn?).

The Wheels Of Justice Are A Slowly Burning Fuse

Back in February 2015 .....

A Life Prison Sentence For Zacarias Moussaoui
(Some Jurors Weren't Convinced Of His Guilt)

..... the only man convicted of being a 9/11 bomber, and also of being a member of the Bin Laden al-Qaeda terror organisation, Zacarias Moussaoui, made claims that the Saudi royals 'funded 9/11 attacks.' 

Drugged Responses

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" .... Albert Einstein

Insanity Doesn't Stop Bad Decisions .....

As this blog has posted on a number of occasions, we need to adopt a completely new approach to tackling the drug crisis in the West.

Open Letter To Boris

Dear Boris

When the Conservatives won the election I was fairly optimistic for the future ....

   Churchillian Poses And Tones, Are Just So Much Hot Air And Bluster ...

.... but then came Covid19, and the governments increasingly flailing response.