Barely 3 weeks into the Smug Alliance, and Chief Axe-Wielder David Laws takes us back to the good old days.
David Laws has resigned from the Coalition Cabinet after revelations that he claimed £40,000 of taxpayers’ money to pay rent to his boyfriend. Too late now to say: One Laws For The Rich... he's gone. And him looking such a natural Tory too. I'l say one thing. The Condems are off to a flying start.
So who will the tories use now to take the flak for the cuts in public services?
The idea was that the tories in general could escape the old Nasty Party image, and the leadership outmanoevre its right-wing by using the nice LibDems as a human shield. Step forward self-made millionaire Slim Laws with his lean and hungry look.
But he now goes into the Guiness Book Of Records as the briefest cabinet post ever.
Who's next?
And who will be the first card-carrying tory to drop a clanger? Who has the most outside business deals which could go wrong?
Peter Tatchell rightly accuses Laws of a lack of solidarity, and of benefiting from the struggle of others. But this is missing the point. In spite of the achievements in taking society out of the 'dark ages' of the fifties, a prominent liberal-democrat still felt too intimidated to reveal his sexuality. He felt career aspirations would be compromised by doing so, presumably. The entire story is a sad reflection on the society we still live in, and on the decrepit culture of the Westminster political machine. But it also shows that you don't get to be a millionaire by passing by the odd £40,ooo when it's going begging, even if it is taxpayer's money, the same taxpayers you were about to make even poorer.
5/26/2010
Symbol Of Brown The Terrible Destroyed
2 weeks in, and the new Lovely Cuddly Condems are bulldozing a protest which stood throughout the reign of Gordon The Terrible, and has arrested the dissenter on unspecified charges. Free at Last! Free at Last!
Apparently, people thought it looked terrible in a place that so many overseas visitors come to. They naturally agree we need the right to peaceful protest but the tents and signs were just ridiculous. If they have to be so tiresome, why can't they go and be ugly somewhere just as ugly and leave respectable people to ignore everything as they always do. Protesting against war is just too inconvenient and too untidy to be allowed. And then there are the property values to consider.
The sensitivities of the genteel classes have always been wheeled out to defend suppressions of all kinds, and their willingness to sacrifice freedom for order is a characteristic of their class and the part it played in the nastier parts of C20th history. But today's Marie Antoinettes must be told to get back to their ornamental cows and pastoral idylls and leave real life to the grownups.
As for tourists, they presumably come just to see such free expressions of dissent. Otherwise, there is nothing in Parliament Square but a shabby patch of clods and trampled turf. For eye of toad and adder to watch, as the poet says.
Apparently, people thought it looked terrible in a place that so many overseas visitors come to. They naturally agree we need the right to peaceful protest but the tents and signs were just ridiculous. If they have to be so tiresome, why can't they go and be ugly somewhere just as ugly and leave respectable people to ignore everything as they always do. Protesting against war is just too inconvenient and too untidy to be allowed. And then there are the property values to consider.
The sensitivities of the genteel classes have always been wheeled out to defend suppressions of all kinds, and their willingness to sacrifice freedom for order is a characteristic of their class and the part it played in the nastier parts of C20th history. But today's Marie Antoinettes must be told to get back to their ornamental cows and pastoral idylls and leave real life to the grownups.
As for tourists, they presumably come just to see such free expressions of dissent. Otherwise, there is nothing in Parliament Square but a shabby patch of clods and trampled turf. For eye of toad and adder to watch, as the poet says.
Stephen Fry and the Schmaltz of Gotterdammerung
Stephen Fry on Wagner. BBC4. 25/5/2010
I don't understand Fry's bewilderment at his admiration for the antisemitic Wagner. He believes that his Jewishness must rebel against anything produced by anyone so genuinely racist. If it doesn't, something is wrong, either with him or with the music he loves, or with his Jewishness and his respect for the Holocaust dead.
But it isn't at all surprising that he should be moved by Wagner, however detestable his racial opinions. Wagner's intensely nostalgic nationalism can be expected to appeal to the rootlessness within Jewish culture. The yearning for a divine homeland in a godless time. It is nationalism calling to Zionism, in the nicest possible way.
Fry also misses the point in blaming the nazis for besmirching the memory of Wagner, so that we only see him through the keyhole of the locked fascist door.
Nazism is in a direct line from the romantic nationalistic re-invention of political mythology during the industrial chaos of the C19th. The reinvention of the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne, and the entire NeoGothic and pantheistic fantasies which swept the newly industrialised world in response to mass-production and the emergence of a dangerous army of discontented, de-skilled, disobedient workers. And anti-semitism was also a natural product of that process.
Fry would like to warn Wagner that his single putrid essay would compromise his memory forever. The converse might also be true. If he had not conformed to the conventional racism, Wagner might never have acquired the respectability and wealthy patrons he did, and we might never have heard of him at all, much, since his greatest works would never have happened.
It is sadly clear that even Stephen Fry has gaps in his education. He might like to consult Orwell's classic text on enjoying the work of the despicable, 'Politics Vs Literature'.
I don't understand Fry's bewilderment at his admiration for the antisemitic Wagner. He believes that his Jewishness must rebel against anything produced by anyone so genuinely racist. If it doesn't, something is wrong, either with him or with the music he loves, or with his Jewishness and his respect for the Holocaust dead.
But it isn't at all surprising that he should be moved by Wagner, however detestable his racial opinions. Wagner's intensely nostalgic nationalism can be expected to appeal to the rootlessness within Jewish culture. The yearning for a divine homeland in a godless time. It is nationalism calling to Zionism, in the nicest possible way.
Fry also misses the point in blaming the nazis for besmirching the memory of Wagner, so that we only see him through the keyhole of the locked fascist door.
Nazism is in a direct line from the romantic nationalistic re-invention of political mythology during the industrial chaos of the C19th. The reinvention of the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne, and the entire NeoGothic and pantheistic fantasies which swept the newly industrialised world in response to mass-production and the emergence of a dangerous army of discontented, de-skilled, disobedient workers. And anti-semitism was also a natural product of that process.
Fry would like to warn Wagner that his single putrid essay would compromise his memory forever. The converse might also be true. If he had not conformed to the conventional racism, Wagner might never have acquired the respectability and wealthy patrons he did, and we might never have heard of him at all, much, since his greatest works would never have happened.
It is sadly clear that even Stephen Fry has gaps in his education. He might like to consult Orwell's classic text on enjoying the work of the despicable, 'Politics Vs Literature'.
5/13/2010
ConDemNation Day 2. Jolly Hockey Sticks.
The trouble for NuLab now is that they are discredited and dis-trousered. Between them ConDem have bought up the electoral stage set, just as NuLab did to the tories all that time ago. Once the liberals are shed in a year or two, the tories only have to employ the right PR company to be in power for ten years, unless Labour can resurrect its ideas and principles. The theory that the party that won this election will never rule again, due to the cuts it will have to enforce, is wild fancy-pants speculation. Most governments are elected by their opponents, not their policies, or even their well-moisturised frontmen.
It really is no good the party whining, from Bigot-Gate it was all over, and even without that monumental stupidity, the best Brown could have hoped for was another day or two in Downing Street.
It really is no good the party whining, from Bigot-Gate it was all over, and even without that monumental stupidity, the best Brown could have hoped for was another day or two in Downing Street.
5/12/2010
ConDemNation
Clamday 1. Mood of the day: Smugg.
Warm bath of columnist approval - Valiant exploits ahead - Deficit Monster Quest - New Age of co-operation and consensus - Dave Disraeli? Why not Good Queen Bess?
- Evil Crookback Gordon well and truly Martson Moor'd - NuLabour delusion dead.
The lesson of NuLabour is that the markets just won't agree to play nice. That if you mess with them, you will eventually wake up one fine morning-after in the bloodstained bed of a dead hooker.
But the ConDems will soon find out that compromise is not co-operation, which the world is crying out for. And Cameron will soon find that his Big Society is co-operating to survive his cuts in public services, and eventually to get him out of Downing Street as soon as possible.
But at the same time, they won't want to replace him with anything resembling NuLabour. Which again leaves room for a genuine alternative to the current poodle-politics. Whether people choose the dark warm burrow of hatred and fascism, or something which celebrates and enables human potential will be largely a matter of presentation. And the message which needs to be delivered is that those who support the BNP are people making a choice according to their lights, not evil mental-defectives. And that they have exactly the same natural needs and enemies as everyone else in their class. That this is not a war among the working classes, but for genuine social justice, with no utopian lies on either side.
Sadly, at present, there are too many so-called socialists who indulge in this kind of Daily Mail language. Who slip into football terrace tribalism whenever the BNP achieve some squalid gain in a windswept Essex estate. The slogan All BNP Supporters are Idiots is as divisive and alienating as the BNP could want. It supports their myth that socialism is just another sneering exploitation of the working classes.
What makes them think that Nye Bevan would have stood on the steps of Dagenham town hall and denounced BNP supporters as being too stupid to have the vote? As being beyond the persuasive power of progressive politics.
To fill the political hole of the future, progressive politicians have to reject completely the language and vocabulary of reaction. Politics are a matter of the words used as much as the policies advanced. It is not possible to advance radical policies with fascist rhetoric. Which doesn't mean simply not insulting natural allies who happen to have found themselves supporting the political enemies of their own class. As we saw with Bigotgate. It means having enough confidence in the ideas to express them clearly and unapologeticaly. This was the failure of NuLabour. The only thing they communicated with their daily drizzle of ungrammatic grunts and mumbles was their political emptiness. They abandoned their principles to get market approval, but had nothing to put in their place.
ConDem have something new and shiny to have faith in. A palpable lie. So they sound convincing. It's just a shame that they have nothing to offer but another compromise with market forces, one even more craven than NuLabour's.
So when the next crash happens, will they be able even to repeat Gordon Brown's goalmouth heroics of autumn 2008? Or even match his part in the negotiations to prevent the collapse of the Euro-Zone? His last act in office, taken when he knew he was an ex-prime minister. Bereft of life, resting in peace.
It is interesting that the period of deepest Brown-Hatred was book-ended by two achievements any politician would be proud of, and which may yet be what he is remembered for.
Cameron and Clegg will definitely be remembered for the embraces of today's fragrant opening ceremony. And for their accidental arranged marriage. But unless Clegg is even more of a sycophant to Cameron than Brown was to The City, and prepared to surrender all principles, and work with corpses like David Davis, Duncan-Smith and Michael Howard, the alliance won't have much time to achieve greatness. It's all hearts and flowers today. But when the looting begins, who will take the blame?
Right through the hard winter, and the long election campaign, and right until yesterday lunchtime, my bird-table was a busy little trattoria for dozens of perky little visitors. Today, nothing. The birds have all gone.
Warm bath of columnist approval - Valiant exploits ahead - Deficit Monster Quest - New Age of co-operation and consensus - Dave Disraeli? Why not Good Queen Bess?
- Evil Crookback Gordon well and truly Martson Moor'd - NuLabour delusion dead.
The lesson of NuLabour is that the markets just won't agree to play nice. That if you mess with them, you will eventually wake up one fine morning-after in the bloodstained bed of a dead hooker.
But the ConDems will soon find out that compromise is not co-operation, which the world is crying out for. And Cameron will soon find that his Big Society is co-operating to survive his cuts in public services, and eventually to get him out of Downing Street as soon as possible.
But at the same time, they won't want to replace him with anything resembling NuLabour. Which again leaves room for a genuine alternative to the current poodle-politics. Whether people choose the dark warm burrow of hatred and fascism, or something which celebrates and enables human potential will be largely a matter of presentation. And the message which needs to be delivered is that those who support the BNP are people making a choice according to their lights, not evil mental-defectives. And that they have exactly the same natural needs and enemies as everyone else in their class. That this is not a war among the working classes, but for genuine social justice, with no utopian lies on either side.
Sadly, at present, there are too many so-called socialists who indulge in this kind of Daily Mail language. Who slip into football terrace tribalism whenever the BNP achieve some squalid gain in a windswept Essex estate. The slogan All BNP Supporters are Idiots is as divisive and alienating as the BNP could want. It supports their myth that socialism is just another sneering exploitation of the working classes.
What makes them think that Nye Bevan would have stood on the steps of Dagenham town hall and denounced BNP supporters as being too stupid to have the vote? As being beyond the persuasive power of progressive politics.
To fill the political hole of the future, progressive politicians have to reject completely the language and vocabulary of reaction. Politics are a matter of the words used as much as the policies advanced. It is not possible to advance radical policies with fascist rhetoric. Which doesn't mean simply not insulting natural allies who happen to have found themselves supporting the political enemies of their own class. As we saw with Bigotgate. It means having enough confidence in the ideas to express them clearly and unapologeticaly. This was the failure of NuLabour. The only thing they communicated with their daily drizzle of ungrammatic grunts and mumbles was their political emptiness. They abandoned their principles to get market approval, but had nothing to put in their place.
ConDem have something new and shiny to have faith in. A palpable lie. So they sound convincing. It's just a shame that they have nothing to offer but another compromise with market forces, one even more craven than NuLabour's.
So when the next crash happens, will they be able even to repeat Gordon Brown's goalmouth heroics of autumn 2008? Or even match his part in the negotiations to prevent the collapse of the Euro-Zone? His last act in office, taken when he knew he was an ex-prime minister. Bereft of life, resting in peace.
It is interesting that the period of deepest Brown-Hatred was book-ended by two achievements any politician would be proud of, and which may yet be what he is remembered for.
Cameron and Clegg will definitely be remembered for the embraces of today's fragrant opening ceremony. And for their accidental arranged marriage. But unless Clegg is even more of a sycophant to Cameron than Brown was to The City, and prepared to surrender all principles, and work with corpses like David Davis, Duncan-Smith and Michael Howard, the alliance won't have much time to achieve greatness. It's all hearts and flowers today. But when the looting begins, who will take the blame?
Right through the hard winter, and the long election campaign, and right until yesterday lunchtime, my bird-table was a busy little trattoria for dozens of perky little visitors. Today, nothing. The birds have all gone.
5/10/2010
SUN BUGS CLEGG PHONE
Is one possible twist left in this coiled snake of British history. And would not only destroy the Cameron tilt at fame and fortune, but also put some NewsCorp executives in prison and raise a strom of demand for overseas media magnates to pay their taxes like everyone else.
So let this be a warning to Wapping. We know what you're thinking, but forget it, if there's still time.
So let this be a warning to Wapping. We know what you're thinking, but forget it, if there's still time.
5/08/2010
Britain Votes for Labour Policy
Whatever happens in today's backstairs deals, there will be an election within 18 months, at the latest. Everyone seems agreed on that.
The key issue of this election was whether to Tame the Deficit with cuts now or cuts in a year's time.
The result of this election was that cuts will be postponed for a year. In fact, everyone might just as well have voted Labour.
The key issue of this election was whether to Tame the Deficit with cuts now or cuts in a year's time.
The result of this election was that cuts will be postponed for a year. In fact, everyone might just as well have voted Labour.
5/06/2010
Obama Wins British Election
While Blair was operating at the same time as a democrat president in America, he was on the rails. Northen Ireland. Minimum Wage. Kosovo. Sierra Leone - all that. When the warmongering nutter Bush got in it all went pants.
Now it looks like The Shrimp Cameron will be Prime Minister alongside Obama. Another cross-political Special-Relationship era.
But which works best and for who? Conservative America with Social Democrat Britain, or the other way around, or an ideological consensus, as with Clinton and Blair, and Reagan and Thatcher?
What influence will the next 6 years of an Obama administration have on British politics, whoever ends up in Number 10 tomorrow? And how much does Cameron breath a sigh of relief that he isn't having to deal with John McCain?
Now it looks like The Shrimp Cameron will be Prime Minister alongside Obama. Another cross-political Special-Relationship era.
But which works best and for who? Conservative America with Social Democrat Britain, or the other way around, or an ideological consensus, as with Clinton and Blair, and Reagan and Thatcher?
What influence will the next 6 years of an Obama administration have on British politics, whoever ends up in Number 10 tomorrow? And how much does Cameron breath a sigh of relief that he isn't having to deal with John McCain?
5/05/2010
Too Much Democracy, Says Cameron
In a blatant invitation to Gerrymandering, the tories are planning to cut the number of MP's by at least 50.
They don't explain how MPs will cope with the extra workload, or which section of the electorate will be allocated to which new constituency.
The democratic representation of hundreds of thousands of people, possibly millions, depends on how their consituencies are restructured. It would be a very simple matter for a government to rig the process and create a massive false majority.
It will be interesting to see how this feeding frenzy for votes develops, and which party comes out ahead, and how much it will cost. The backstairs deals and infighting and political resentment should keep the media happy for years.
They don't explain how MPs will cope with the extra workload, or which section of the electorate will be allocated to which new constituency.
The democratic representation of hundreds of thousands of people, possibly millions, depends on how their consituencies are restructured. It would be a very simple matter for a government to rig the process and create a massive false majority.
It will be interesting to see how this feeding frenzy for votes develops, and which party comes out ahead, and how much it will cost. The backstairs deals and infighting and political resentment should keep the media happy for years.
4/29/2010
Racism Is Natural Says Another Nutty Professor
Writing in the Journal Experimental Social Psychology, Dr Michael Inzlicht said he believed people are born with a tendency to group with others on how like themselves they are. He has tested the brains of several people, he says.
Tripe. This research doesn't suggest that racism is in any way genetic or hard-wired or natural or inevitable or in any other sense a practical, necessary aspect of human perception. And anyone spinning it that way is merely indulging in wishful thinking.
It merely records how a brain works now, in response to a series of contemporary stimuli,with all the cultural baggage it carries. And after centuries of systemic racism, the fact that some people's brains have learned racist responses is hardly surprising.
During Apartheid, little children were subjected to sustained aversion therapy to the colour black, and to thick lips and frizzy hair.
It worked fine, as all conditioning does.
If the brains of the adults those children grew up to be were tested in the same way, they would undoubtedly produce the same results.
Tripe. This research doesn't suggest that racism is in any way genetic or hard-wired or natural or inevitable or in any other sense a practical, necessary aspect of human perception. And anyone spinning it that way is merely indulging in wishful thinking.
It merely records how a brain works now, in response to a series of contemporary stimuli,with all the cultural baggage it carries. And after centuries of systemic racism, the fact that some people's brains have learned racist responses is hardly surprising.
During Apartheid, little children were subjected to sustained aversion therapy to the colour black, and to thick lips and frizzy hair.
It worked fine, as all conditioning does.
If the brains of the adults those children grew up to be were tested in the same way, they would undoubtedly produce the same results.
TinTin In The Congo Banned Again
Would the publishers of this sad racist trash be prepared to include a preface briefly outlining the genocidal Belgian exploitation of the Congo for its rubber by King Leopold the Demented?
What's that you say? Too political? No place for such a thing in children's literature? Kids should be protected from these unpalatable truths?
But I thought that was good for them...
The fact is that kids do get their preconceptions from fiction, far more so than from the newspapers or Newsnight.. Many have grown up to kill and be killed in Afghanistan as a result.
What's that you say? Too political? No place for such a thing in children's literature? Kids should be protected from these unpalatable truths?
But I thought that was good for them...
The fact is that kids do get their preconceptions from fiction, far more so than from the newspapers or Newsnight.. Many have grown up to kill and be killed in Afghanistan as a result.
Botox Politics
BIGOT-GATE
The most disappointing aspect of all was probably the fact that the Guardian, of all outlets, chose to run the apparently damning image of Brown with his head in his hand, listening to the playback on the Jeremy Vine show for the BBC.
Anyone who actually watched and listened to the footage from which this was decontextualised will know that in fact, Brown leant forward before the tape started playing. He was adopting a fairly standard position many people use when concentrating on anything, and one which seems characteristic of him. He was not collapsed in despair at his gaff as he hadn't yet heard it.
In fact, I seem to remember similar frozen footage from earlier in the campaign, and that was also briefly spun against him.
Appearance is now much more important than reality. Every single frame from a video can now be used at print resolution, which increases the ability to lie by a factor of 125 frames per second. Which means that no politician will be able to be a normal human being again. Every second of footage will be scrutinised for the killer moneyshot of him gurning, sneering, squinting or drooling. If we wanted a generation of Botox politics, that's what we've got.
The most disappointing aspect of all was probably the fact that the Guardian, of all outlets, chose to run the apparently damning image of Brown with his head in his hand, listening to the playback on the Jeremy Vine show for the BBC.
Anyone who actually watched and listened to the footage from which this was decontextualised will know that in fact, Brown leant forward before the tape started playing. He was adopting a fairly standard position many people use when concentrating on anything, and one which seems characteristic of him. He was not collapsed in despair at his gaff as he hadn't yet heard it.
In fact, I seem to remember similar frozen footage from earlier in the campaign, and that was also briefly spun against him.
Appearance is now much more important than reality. Every single frame from a video can now be used at print resolution, which increases the ability to lie by a factor of 125 frames per second. Which means that no politician will be able to be a normal human being again. Every second of footage will be scrutinised for the killer moneyshot of him gurning, sneering, squinting or drooling. If we wanted a generation of Botox politics, that's what we've got.
4/28/2010
Bye Bye Gordon
You simply can't insult little old ladies and win elections. It doesn't matter if they are bigots, you have to schmooze them til it hurts, and remember to turn your mike off.
So that's the end of that chapter. It means a Cameron government of some sort, and a hung parliament is a lot less likely now.
The only interesting question left is who makes the most from this? Clegg or Cameron?
How exactly will the tory and libdem party machines cash in on Brown's disaster?
The overriding lesson to all members of double acts is, don't try the solo career. It never works. It means the boarding house in Rhyl for you. And as for the straight stage - only if you want to play a tragic clown to patronising reviews. And that this massive flop should happen in Rochdale, as in the Rochdale Pioneers, the Godfathers of the English co-operative movement, is surely some sort of revenge by the gods of socialism at Brown's heresies. His presence there was a little like flaunting the Golden Calf at the foot of Mt Sinai.
As far as tomorrow night's planned appearance in Leaders Got Talent, he might as well turn up drunk and punch out cameron's lights on national TV. That would get him more votes than anything else which might happen. And would be much more fun for everyone, except toryboy, of course.
But he'll have a new trainset to play with in a couple of weeks.
We will all have to be very understanding about the massive tax hikes he is forced to introduce by the back door, as Thatcher and Major both did as soon as they took office. After all. We're all in this together, y'know. Rich and Poor in patriotic union. Dunkirk Spirit and all that.
Sun headline tomorrow?
GOTCHA!
So that's the end of that chapter. It means a Cameron government of some sort, and a hung parliament is a lot less likely now.
The only interesting question left is who makes the most from this? Clegg or Cameron?
How exactly will the tory and libdem party machines cash in on Brown's disaster?
The overriding lesson to all members of double acts is, don't try the solo career. It never works. It means the boarding house in Rhyl for you. And as for the straight stage - only if you want to play a tragic clown to patronising reviews. And that this massive flop should happen in Rochdale, as in the Rochdale Pioneers, the Godfathers of the English co-operative movement, is surely some sort of revenge by the gods of socialism at Brown's heresies. His presence there was a little like flaunting the Golden Calf at the foot of Mt Sinai.
As far as tomorrow night's planned appearance in Leaders Got Talent, he might as well turn up drunk and punch out cameron's lights on national TV. That would get him more votes than anything else which might happen. And would be much more fun for everyone, except toryboy, of course.
But he'll have a new trainset to play with in a couple of weeks.
We will all have to be very understanding about the massive tax hikes he is forced to introduce by the back door, as Thatcher and Major both did as soon as they took office. After all. We're all in this together, y'know. Rich and Poor in patriotic union. Dunkirk Spirit and all that.
Sun headline tomorrow?
GOTCHA!
4/23/2010
The Triangle of Talent. Round 2
Last night was Spudface Cameron's best chance to tickle all the core tory nerve centres. The war, immigration, europe... And he blew it. He still has all the charisma of a John McCain who's had an accident in his pants.
Brown was obviously on Garland-strength doses of benzedrine, until he met Gracie, when he slowed down to carehome speed.
And Clegg didn't implode, and even consolidated LibDem occupation of the soft-left vote, shielding Labour from any of the traditional bogeyman attacks.
This idiotic Talentshow, however superficial and bogus, has at least bypassed 50 years of newspaper-manipulated democracy. But from now on, any political party hoping to get elected will have to choose the sort of leader who will perform best in the triangular TV bearpit.
That is the real legacy of this experiment, not the rise of the LibDems as a credible political force.
Brown was obviously on Garland-strength doses of benzedrine, until he met Gracie, when he slowed down to carehome speed.
And Clegg didn't implode, and even consolidated LibDem occupation of the soft-left vote, shielding Labour from any of the traditional bogeyman attacks.
This idiotic Talentshow, however superficial and bogus, has at least bypassed 50 years of newspaper-manipulated democracy. But from now on, any political party hoping to get elected will have to choose the sort of leader who will perform best in the triangular TV bearpit.
That is the real legacy of this experiment, not the rise of the LibDems as a credible political force.
Humiliated and Embarrassed
For decades The Sun has paid its rent by demonising the unemployed. Whenever it feels the need, it labels them as layabouts, scroungers, and generally does what it can to ensure that anyone not in work feels humiliated and embarrassed by their misfortune.
So it is hardly surprising that someone raised in that culture, and unable to find work, should feel like a worthless loser. Especially if they were a sensitive, intelligent young person who had worked hard at school, and who expected some return for that effort and commitment.
And today the Sun splashes that one young woman felt humiliated and embarrassed enough to kill herself. On the day after official figures report a rise in unemployment, which naturally makes the government look bad - in the middle of an election campaign which has seen the shine taken off the Sun's candidate.
So what looks like an expression of sympathy for a bereaved family is in fact nothing more than a cynical exploitation of her tragedy for political ends. 'Brainy girl' Vicky Harrison will not have died in vain if she can help get David Cameron elected. What parent could wish for a fitter memorial for their child?
It would be an interesting exercise to wade through the Sun's archive to find a similar report on one of the many suicides caused directly by Margaret Thatcher's sabotage of the mining industry. Or even among the 3 million dumped on the dole by her mad Utopian experiment. And especially today, it would be very interesting to have access to the Wapping darkroom store for images of the police thugs who killed Blair Peach.
Every government deserves a kicking for rises in unemployment. But the unemployed do not deserve to be made to feel like scum and blamed for economic forces beyond their control. This does not make them Get On Their Bikes, but it definitely drives some of them to kill themselves.
But this suits the Sun perfectly. It humiliates and embarrasses the unemployed and stigmatises unemployment itself as a personal failing. The Sun demonises the unemployed and benefits from every unemployed person it drives to suicide , just as it benefits from every gullible recruit to the army it kills by glorifying war.
It makes money from generating contempt, then is rewarded by the resulting tragic stories. And if those accounts can be used to further Rupert Murdoch's political ambitions, so much the better.
So it is hardly surprising that someone raised in that culture, and unable to find work, should feel like a worthless loser. Especially if they were a sensitive, intelligent young person who had worked hard at school, and who expected some return for that effort and commitment.
And today the Sun splashes that one young woman felt humiliated and embarrassed enough to kill herself. On the day after official figures report a rise in unemployment, which naturally makes the government look bad - in the middle of an election campaign which has seen the shine taken off the Sun's candidate.
So what looks like an expression of sympathy for a bereaved family is in fact nothing more than a cynical exploitation of her tragedy for political ends. 'Brainy girl' Vicky Harrison will not have died in vain if she can help get David Cameron elected. What parent could wish for a fitter memorial for their child?
It would be an interesting exercise to wade through the Sun's archive to find a similar report on one of the many suicides caused directly by Margaret Thatcher's sabotage of the mining industry. Or even among the 3 million dumped on the dole by her mad Utopian experiment. And especially today, it would be very interesting to have access to the Wapping darkroom store for images of the police thugs who killed Blair Peach.
Every government deserves a kicking for rises in unemployment. But the unemployed do not deserve to be made to feel like scum and blamed for economic forces beyond their control. This does not make them Get On Their Bikes, but it definitely drives some of them to kill themselves.
But this suits the Sun perfectly. It humiliates and embarrasses the unemployed and stigmatises unemployment itself as a personal failing. The Sun demonises the unemployed and benefits from every unemployed person it drives to suicide , just as it benefits from every gullible recruit to the army it kills by glorifying war.
It makes money from generating contempt, then is rewarded by the resulting tragic stories. And if those accounts can be used to further Rupert Murdoch's political ambitions, so much the better.
4/22/2010
NAZI CLEGG THIEF SWINDLER SHOCK TRICK SMEAR
The Telegraph jumped the gun a bit with this lame piece of muckraking. Not only is it completely harmless, but also exquisitely badly timed. Now Cameron looks like the pampered poodle of press bullyboys. Which is of course true.
All Clegg has to do is turn casually to Spudface, flicking a speck of dust from his immaculate cuffs, and ask:
As for the Mail conflating CLEGG and NAZI all over their front page, that is hardly surprising. In the dark columns patrolled by its hitmen, Clarkson and Littlejohn, almost everybody, including cyclists, vegetarians and council workers are routinely referred to as NAZIS. And now almost everyone loves Click. And if he's a nazi and they are nazis, someone is either lying about them and Clegg, or lying about the nazis. The trick was bound to backfire sometime, and this is probably it. It has confirmed everything Click has been saying about both tories and Labour, but Labour can sit in the shade again and let Cameron take the heat.
You have to say, well played Peter Mandelson. Hot favourite for the Bernard Ingham Spindoctor of The Year Award at this years' press bash.
Cleggmania aside, last week's show was dominated by Cameron's Deflation. He looked like a fretful Maris Piper most of the time. Like Wayne Rooney's bank-clerk older brother when opening his winter gasbill.. And by failing miserably to outperform the Ultra-Lite Clegg, he showed his true worth.
The fact that Click Negg beat Spudface in the beauty contest means that Brown won on the night. If Cameron was the tories' Great White Hope, he wouldn't have been outsmarted by the no-hoper. Gathered around their screen in the Carlton Club, tory grandees must have been crying in their Asti Spumante.
Tonight, the leader who manages to properly pronounce Eyjafjallajökull first will see his digital approval worm will hit the roof. And if Click gives it its new name - E15 - the Cleggometer will blow a fuse. Mt Stratford would be even better.
If the election is decided by this farce, there will be demands for proportional representation to replace the current system.
It won't make any difference. All we need is a fixed term, and a total ban on any electioneering during the month before the poll. In fact, all politicians should be locked into the Palace of Westminster, and the election fought purely on the basis of the real experience of the electorate during the term of office. That would make us pay attention a bit more. And not just for a week or two every four years.
The first 'debate' saw Clegg clouding the political sky, grounding Cameron Air, but leaving Gordon Brown sipping Pina Coladas on his Barbados holiday beach for an extra week.
What kind of freak political devastation we can expect out of tonight's Sky is still unclear. Something to do with helicopters, presumably.
All Clegg has to do is turn casually to Spudface, flicking a speck of dust from his immaculate cuffs, and ask:
'Is this the best your bosses can do to get you elected?'By launching this pathetic dirty Nick trick in a blatant attempt to scupper tonights debate, the Telegraph has panicked like Corporal Jones, and fired its musket long before it could see the whites of their eyes.
As for the Mail conflating CLEGG and NAZI all over their front page, that is hardly surprising. In the dark columns patrolled by its hitmen, Clarkson and Littlejohn, almost everybody, including cyclists, vegetarians and council workers are routinely referred to as NAZIS. And now almost everyone loves Click. And if he's a nazi and they are nazis, someone is either lying about them and Clegg, or lying about the nazis. The trick was bound to backfire sometime, and this is probably it. It has confirmed everything Click has been saying about both tories and Labour, but Labour can sit in the shade again and let Cameron take the heat.
You have to say, well played Peter Mandelson. Hot favourite for the Bernard Ingham Spindoctor of The Year Award at this years' press bash.
Cleggmania aside, last week's show was dominated by Cameron's Deflation. He looked like a fretful Maris Piper most of the time. Like Wayne Rooney's bank-clerk older brother when opening his winter gasbill.. And by failing miserably to outperform the Ultra-Lite Clegg, he showed his true worth.
The fact that Click Negg beat Spudface in the beauty contest means that Brown won on the night. If Cameron was the tories' Great White Hope, he wouldn't have been outsmarted by the no-hoper. Gathered around their screen in the Carlton Club, tory grandees must have been crying in their Asti Spumante.
Tonight, the leader who manages to properly pronounce Eyjafjallajökull first will see his digital approval worm will hit the roof. And if Click gives it its new name - E15 - the Cleggometer will blow a fuse. Mt Stratford would be even better.
If the election is decided by this farce, there will be demands for proportional representation to replace the current system.
It won't make any difference. All we need is a fixed term, and a total ban on any electioneering during the month before the poll. In fact, all politicians should be locked into the Palace of Westminster, and the election fought purely on the basis of the real experience of the electorate during the term of office. That would make us pay attention a bit more. And not just for a week or two every four years.
The first 'debate' saw Clegg clouding the political sky, grounding Cameron Air, but leaving Gordon Brown sipping Pina Coladas on his Barbados holiday beach for an extra week.
What kind of freak political devastation we can expect out of tonight's Sky is still unclear. Something to do with helicopters, presumably.
4/21/2010
Pope Adolf on Ashmageddon
While we're blaming people, where was His Holiness during the current Armageddon?
Preparing?
You'd have thought that this would have been a golden opportunity to show a bit of something. To show what religion and all that is meant to be good at.
Maybe he was pre-occupied or something. Maybe He's learned that Silence is Golden. That feudal superstition should keep itself to itself and not try to set up global corporations designed to make money and force people to live their lives in imitation of the C13th.
Meanwhile, thousands - if not millions - can breathe a sigh of relief. Eyjafjallajökull has been renamed E15.
Preparing?
You'd have thought that this would have been a golden opportunity to show a bit of something. To show what religion and all that is meant to be good at.
Maybe he was pre-occupied or something. Maybe He's learned that Silence is Golden. That feudal superstition should keep itself to itself and not try to set up global corporations designed to make money and force people to live their lives in imitation of the C13th.
Meanwhile, thousands - if not millions - can breathe a sigh of relief. Eyjafjallajökull has been renamed E15.
4/20/2010
How Will the Ash Cloud of Death Effect the Election?
How will the Ash Cloud of Death Effect the Election? Because it will.
What could the killer volcano question be on Thursday night's debate?
'Can you name the volcano?' That would be a start for Foreign Affairs Nite.
The first to competently pronounce Eyjafjallajökull will gain enormous respect. I suppose they're all practising in front of mirrors now, otherwise the massed Simon Cowells beyond the cameras will shake their heads in tired old-pro resignation, and call:
'Next!'
It might be tempting for the deflated Spudface Cameron to appeal to the Old Duffer vote, who have been ranting online in the last few days about how the country has no guts, and how it's all a sinister conspiracy by the Elf'n'Safety Brigade of the Nanny State.
In the good old days when men were men they'd have just fixed a pair of stout military tights (W.A.A.Fs for the use of) over the engine intakes and barrelled that kite over the White Cliffs of Dover like a partridge in season.
Dammit, all of civilisation runs on someone's blood. Without 1,000s of road deaths a year, there would be no supermarkets, and riots in the streets. And the Nanny State worries about a few hundred possible deaths in the air. This isn't the spirit which beat the Frogs at Waterloo or the krauts on the beaches of Normandy.
etc etc etc.
The professional hacks have moved in on the game, spewing out doublethink by the yard, all amounting to the samne thing. It's the Millenium Bug all over again!
A load of namby-pamby stuff and nonsense. In their day they would have donned their goggles and white scarves and ploughed intrepidly through the bit of dust, while others quivered like white mice in their shadow. Mercenary Onanism of the highest order.
Rightist Nutter extraordinaire Alain de Botton has naturally joined in:
Gimme a break please. Romancifiers like Botton never miss a chance to stuff their version of the past down the throat of the present.
If he were to seriously apply his imagination more to a future without Consumerist Free Market Worship, then he would be doing his job as a philosopher. But as a devotee of the free market, this would make his head explode. Just as it did to those who always condemned powered flight as blasphemous. Botton would have been one of the loudest crying: 'If God had meant us to fly he would have given us wings.'
Ultimately, what he might as well say is 'imagine a world without the vote, where sage old men who had proved themselves in battle, took all the major decisions on behalf of everyone, who were then 'liberated' to enjoy their lives.' Ultimately, like Rabid Littlejohn yesterday, he can go Eyjafjallajökull himself.
Brown, of course, just has to play a straight hand, and he's almost home to a famous draw.
Meanwhile, the conspiracies run to fantasy. The eruption is Iceland's Revenge for losing the credit war. The Icelandic PM on Newsnight was like having a visit from The Boys.
So will that be the tactics of the Browneron on thursday? Blame it on the boy. They could do worse. It won't be the worst joke we hear all campaign, it's just a matter of who gets in first.
Watch this space.
What could the killer volcano question be on Thursday night's debate?
'Can you name the volcano?' That would be a start for Foreign Affairs Nite.
The first to competently pronounce Eyjafjallajökull will gain enormous respect. I suppose they're all practising in front of mirrors now, otherwise the massed Simon Cowells beyond the cameras will shake their heads in tired old-pro resignation, and call:
'Next!'
It might be tempting for the deflated Spudface Cameron to appeal to the Old Duffer vote, who have been ranting online in the last few days about how the country has no guts, and how it's all a sinister conspiracy by the Elf'n'Safety Brigade of the Nanny State.
In the good old days when men were men they'd have just fixed a pair of stout military tights (W.A.A.Fs for the use of) over the engine intakes and barrelled that kite over the White Cliffs of Dover like a partridge in season.
Dammit, all of civilisation runs on someone's blood. Without 1,000s of road deaths a year, there would be no supermarkets, and riots in the streets. And the Nanny State worries about a few hundred possible deaths in the air. This isn't the spirit which beat the Frogs at Waterloo or the krauts on the beaches of Normandy.
etc etc etc.
The professional hacks have moved in on the game, spewing out doublethink by the yard, all amounting to the samne thing. It's the Millenium Bug all over again!
A load of namby-pamby stuff and nonsense. In their day they would have donned their goggles and white scarves and ploughed intrepidly through the bit of dust, while others quivered like white mice in their shadow. Mercenary Onanism of the highest order.
Rightist Nutter extraordinaire Alain de Botton has naturally joined in:
"In a future world without aeroplanes, children would gather at the feet of old men and hear tales of strange flying machines..."and hear tales of Noggin the Nog, and his heroic deeds in the land of the far north.
Gimme a break please. Romancifiers like Botton never miss a chance to stuff their version of the past down the throat of the present.
If he were to seriously apply his imagination more to a future without Consumerist Free Market Worship, then he would be doing his job as a philosopher. But as a devotee of the free market, this would make his head explode. Just as it did to those who always condemned powered flight as blasphemous. Botton would have been one of the loudest crying: 'If God had meant us to fly he would have given us wings.'
Ultimately, what he might as well say is 'imagine a world without the vote, where sage old men who had proved themselves in battle, took all the major decisions on behalf of everyone, who were then 'liberated' to enjoy their lives.' Ultimately, like Rabid Littlejohn yesterday, he can go Eyjafjallajökull himself.
Brown, of course, just has to play a straight hand, and he's almost home to a famous draw.
Meanwhile, the conspiracies run to fantasy. The eruption is Iceland's Revenge for losing the credit war. The Icelandic PM on Newsnight was like having a visit from The Boys.
"Now about our little arrangement over the banks. You have a very nice civil flight industry. Shame if it were to get all clogged up and grounded. Clogged up with - ooThey've never got over losing (or winning) the Cod War. Either way, they want to make us pay for making them pay back what they owe your local council, and the rest of us are left praying to Woden or Odin or Wotan to not plunge us back into recession. I blame that Click Negg. Until he opened his mouth everything was fine. The gods were offended by his overturning the political applecart.
Now can you think of anywhere that might cause that kind of trouble?... If you can, let us know and we'll do our best to see that any problems go away. If you're reasonable about our credit arrangement...." I dunno - some kind of ASH. Maybe even VOLCANIC ash, blown thousands of feet into the air by some huge natural force.
So will that be the tactics of the Browneron on thursday? Blame it on the boy. They could do worse. It won't be the worst joke we hear all campaign, it's just a matter of who gets in first.
Watch this space.
3/27/2010
Pontiff-igate - Pope Adolf In The Bunker
Given a doctrine which demonises natural sexuality as much as the Catholicism does, and which makes eternal damnation the price of involuntary normal, natural sexual feelings, and it is inevitable that custodians of its children will feel duty bound to purify the child of such feelings for as much as their souls are seen to be worth. And since the custodians will also be victims of the same psychological torture, it is also inevitable that there will be a large number of qualified paedophiles installed deeply within the instution, and that the institution should be a magnet for such emotional cripples. Add in the fact that until its first communion, the child is an inferior species, and you have a lethal combination. One that, since it is all in the child's best Eternal interest, is worth any amount of lies and worldy pain to preserve.
The systemic problem reducing the Catholic superstition to ruins is not about the celibacy of priests, that is an easy and silly excuse. Men without sex are not monsters waiting to explode. The deeper cause is the doctrinal phobia of sexuality inflicted on generations of catholics. This self-disgust is what makes it possible for a priest to believe that a child requires torture in order to expel the demons which are causing the sexual attraction he feels. In his mind, the priest is battling the Devil himself, not torturing a child.
The systemic Irish abuse is not an aberration from the practice of organised religion, but a core element of it. And since, to a child, almost anything an adult does is moral and acceptable, even if unpleasant, it is not difficult to keep the vicious cycle of abuse spinning.
Sexual reactions are involuntary. You cannot control what you find attractive. So to be stimulated by inflicting pain on those too young to understand or consent is not a sexual reflex, but a cross-wiring, which (as in pornography) becomes a demand for power.
This is pathological, and socially intolerable. But the paedophile still persists in spite of social pressure. Not because this is their only way of achieving gratification, but because it is their only identity. Which is a severe disability. Guilt feeding obsessive behaviour in a vicious cycle. How many more definitions of sickness do the popular hate-press need?
Being subject to reflexes which deliver a reward for inflicting pain instead of the natural instinct which is to nurture and protect the vulnerable is sociopathic and diseased. The fact that the diseased mind knows it is despised is incedental, but significant. And even contributory.
Everyone accepts that it is a natural instinct to protect and defend children, I hope. That those who seek to harm them are the opposite, and that in this case, their sexual reflexes have become entangled with their need to harm. It doesn't take a vote to decide when someones neurology is damaged. The evidence is all too clear. And not much will improve until paedophilia is researched dispassionately, without the howlings of the tabloids for vengeance.
The word 'Evil' has been thrown around a lot lately. Only the problem is not real 'Evil', because there is no such thing, but our sloppy dependence on the word itself. We don't need a medieval concept to explain child abuse. It is perfectly explicable through real evidence. No need for metaphysical malevolent intervention. Whatever else it is, the Catholic Church is not the Whore of Babylon. Whatever that is, Dr Paisley. By pandering to medieval models of thought, we are perpetuating the catholic world-view which makes possible both child abuse, and the reduction of women to beasts of burden.
Should the tax-relieved Catholic Church be allowed to traumatise children with threats of eternal torture if they express their sexuality in a natural, healthy way?
If religions want independence, then they should be allowed it, and the relieve the burden on the taxpayer in the process. If the teaching of all religion were made illegal before the age of ten, most organised superstitions would shrivel back to an appropriate size, limping along on the bounty of a few rich eccentrics and the desperate scrapings of the gullible, ill, and old. But at least they would be sincere congregations, and only able to damage their own.
The printing press meant that the delegated authority of the Catholic Church gave way to a personal interpretation and relationship with the godhead, and Protestantism (and the Enlightenment) was born. Today's explosion of personal communications can hardly be expected to defy this precedent.
And now it is entirely likely that the credibility of the Vatican has been fatally undermined. But the blame must not be allowed to rest with the 'rotten apples', or the slipshod selection procedures or even the full blooded corruption.
Child abuse in Catholicism begins in its doctrine that sexual feelings are the Devil at work, and must be bludgeoned out of existence, and any evidence of them mortified without delay. That's 'deadened' in my book. A doctrine of death and desensitisation and perversion. Fine for the Middle Ages, possibly, ludicrous and obscene now. Also, sexual instincts have to be perverted from the norm, or the child will go to Hell for playing with themselves. The historic effects of such insanity can only be guessed at.
The trouble with laws against torture and child abuse is not just that they discriminate against the torturers and child abusers. They also challenge the authority of the church, and its important Friend. So they must be discriminatory against Catholic priests and their beliefs, and therefore a denial of the freedom of worship, and therefore 'hypocritical'. Easy to appreciate if you're a sulky teenager. Not very becoming in a semi-divine 'ex'-Nazi leader of one of the world's leading superstitions.
What next? The Vatican demands its God-given right to burn heretic protestants at the stake? Why not? That was unshakeable orthodoxy once too.
The wider shame is that this country hates children as sytemically as the Catholic Church. It is institutionally paedophobic. How can it be anything else? It has destroyed play by building roads and sub-standard profiteering housing on anywhere children used to play.
The bloodtop media has terrified parents into believing that if they allow their children out of their sight they will never see them again, in spite of the figures, which show that such crimes are falling, as are the figures for child murder in general.
And so we now have more than one generation of adults who have grown up deprived of normal learning and socialisation, and seem doomed to repeat the same suppression with their children.
As if that were not bad enough, we also now see children as a status symbol. A commodity, with all the formal expectations of any other expensive product. And when they do not conform to these stereotypes or model specifications, we are outraged. And demonise them as hoodies, ferals, chavs, and other hate-words.
The nett effect is to dehumanise children, cripple the adults they become, create and intensify another layer of alienation in society (make even more people hate and fear each other) and help to create the ideal Consumerist society in which nobody talks to anyone except via some profitable media, and people become so deraged that only possessing sparkly objects can give their lives any purpose.
It isn't only the best minds of the C13th which have to change. Modern consumerism has to end its ritual abuse of children too.
The systemic problem reducing the Catholic superstition to ruins is not about the celibacy of priests, that is an easy and silly excuse. Men without sex are not monsters waiting to explode. The deeper cause is the doctrinal phobia of sexuality inflicted on generations of catholics. This self-disgust is what makes it possible for a priest to believe that a child requires torture in order to expel the demons which are causing the sexual attraction he feels. In his mind, the priest is battling the Devil himself, not torturing a child.
GIVE ME THE CHILD, AND I WILL MAKE IT SUFFER
Any doctrine which requires lifelong irrational commitment in the face of massive evidence to the contrary (like most organised religions) is going to naturally target children for indoctrination as early as possible. It is their only means of survival. In practice this means scaring the bejasus out of them. Terrifying children into obedience and even 'Love' with threats of infinite torture. This is a form of psychological abuse worthy of Orwell's Room 101, and a permanent distortion of one of the core social concepts we know - Love. In this construction, 'Love' can be demanded with threats. No wonder history is as blood-stained as it is.The systemic Irish abuse is not an aberration from the practice of organised religion, but a core element of it. And since, to a child, almost anything an adult does is moral and acceptable, even if unpleasant, it is not difficult to keep the vicious cycle of abuse spinning.
DON'T WORRY. THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!
It is deeply diseased to derive involuntary sexual pleasure from torturing the vulnerable. It is, as the tabloids keep saying, SICK. Sickness is not healthy. But in spite of routinely labelling child abusers as sick, they refuse to accept that they are ill. Which is an abuse of the language worthy of Orwell's Room 101. To accept it as a disease would rob the media of the possibility of punishment, and of a topic for another profitable Two Minutes Hate. Which is pretty sick in itself.Sexual reactions are involuntary. You cannot control what you find attractive. So to be stimulated by inflicting pain on those too young to understand or consent is not a sexual reflex, but a cross-wiring, which (as in pornography) becomes a demand for power.
This is pathological, and socially intolerable. But the paedophile still persists in spite of social pressure. Not because this is their only way of achieving gratification, but because it is their only identity. Which is a severe disability. Guilt feeding obsessive behaviour in a vicious cycle. How many more definitions of sickness do the popular hate-press need?
Being subject to reflexes which deliver a reward for inflicting pain instead of the natural instinct which is to nurture and protect the vulnerable is sociopathic and diseased. The fact that the diseased mind knows it is despised is incedental, but significant. And even contributory.
Everyone accepts that it is a natural instinct to protect and defend children, I hope. That those who seek to harm them are the opposite, and that in this case, their sexual reflexes have become entangled with their need to harm. It doesn't take a vote to decide when someones neurology is damaged. The evidence is all too clear. And not much will improve until paedophilia is researched dispassionately, without the howlings of the tabloids for vengeance.
The word 'Evil' has been thrown around a lot lately. Only the problem is not real 'Evil', because there is no such thing, but our sloppy dependence on the word itself. We don't need a medieval concept to explain child abuse. It is perfectly explicable through real evidence. No need for metaphysical malevolent intervention. Whatever else it is, the Catholic Church is not the Whore of Babylon. Whatever that is, Dr Paisley. By pandering to medieval models of thought, we are perpetuating the catholic world-view which makes possible both child abuse, and the reduction of women to beasts of burden.
CATHOLIC SHARIA LAW
On the general point: Should any state-subsidised organisation be allowed to undermine the democratically determined ethics and laws of the society which feeds them?Should the tax-relieved Catholic Church be allowed to traumatise children with threats of eternal torture if they express their sexuality in a natural, healthy way?
If religions want independence, then they should be allowed it, and the relieve the burden on the taxpayer in the process. If the teaching of all religion were made illegal before the age of ten, most organised superstitions would shrivel back to an appropriate size, limping along on the bounty of a few rich eccentrics and the desperate scrapings of the gullible, ill, and old. But at least they would be sincere congregations, and only able to damage their own.
POPE ADOLF SLEEPS WITH THE FISHES
Each technological advance has had deep repercussions on the history of religion.The printing press meant that the delegated authority of the Catholic Church gave way to a personal interpretation and relationship with the godhead, and Protestantism (and the Enlightenment) was born. Today's explosion of personal communications can hardly be expected to defy this precedent.
And now it is entirely likely that the credibility of the Vatican has been fatally undermined. But the blame must not be allowed to rest with the 'rotten apples', or the slipshod selection procedures or even the full blooded corruption.
Child abuse in Catholicism begins in its doctrine that sexual feelings are the Devil at work, and must be bludgeoned out of existence, and any evidence of them mortified without delay. That's 'deadened' in my book. A doctrine of death and desensitisation and perversion. Fine for the Middle Ages, possibly, ludicrous and obscene now. Also, sexual instincts have to be perverted from the norm, or the child will go to Hell for playing with themselves. The historic effects of such insanity can only be guessed at.
IT'S SO UNFAIR!!
The real coverup at work here is the power-struggle between reality and illusion, Between God and Man. The very idea of mere elected governments interfering to protect children from ritual abuse? It's Political Correctness Gone Mad!The trouble with laws against torture and child abuse is not just that they discriminate against the torturers and child abusers. They also challenge the authority of the church, and its important Friend. So they must be discriminatory against Catholic priests and their beliefs, and therefore a denial of the freedom of worship, and therefore 'hypocritical'. Easy to appreciate if you're a sulky teenager. Not very becoming in a semi-divine 'ex'-Nazi leader of one of the world's leading superstitions.
What next? The Vatican demands its God-given right to burn heretic protestants at the stake? Why not? That was unshakeable orthodoxy once too.
CASTING THE LAST STONE
Now that Catholicism's 1500 year Reich appears to have collapsed, like the Walls of Jericho at the blast of the Information Era, where does that leave Islam? Which is hardly any less sexually repressive than Catholicism. The British taxpayer is due to pay for the pope's visit to London in September. The British taxpayer is not known for its Christian tolerance of paedophiles. Their red-eyed wrath can even spill over on to innocent paediatricians, just to make sure. So in practical terms, Rome has until September to do something meaningful. If it doesn't, the spectacle of mass anti-papal demonstrations in London could be as historic as the footage of the demolition of the Berlin Wall.The wider shame is that this country hates children as sytemically as the Catholic Church. It is institutionally paedophobic. How can it be anything else? It has destroyed play by building roads and sub-standard profiteering housing on anywhere children used to play.
The bloodtop media has terrified parents into believing that if they allow their children out of their sight they will never see them again, in spite of the figures, which show that such crimes are falling, as are the figures for child murder in general.
And so we now have more than one generation of adults who have grown up deprived of normal learning and socialisation, and seem doomed to repeat the same suppression with their children.
As if that were not bad enough, we also now see children as a status symbol. A commodity, with all the formal expectations of any other expensive product. And when they do not conform to these stereotypes or model specifications, we are outraged. And demonise them as hoodies, ferals, chavs, and other hate-words.
The nett effect is to dehumanise children, cripple the adults they become, create and intensify another layer of alienation in society (make even more people hate and fear each other) and help to create the ideal Consumerist society in which nobody talks to anyone except via some profitable media, and people become so deraged that only possessing sparkly objects can give their lives any purpose.
It isn't only the best minds of the C13th which have to change. Modern consumerism has to end its ritual abuse of children too.
3/12/2010
Religious Parents Refuse Children Sex Education
November 2009
The only 'choice' for religious maniac parents is between having their 15 year old daughters educated about sex by qualified teachers, or by children a year older than them. Or simply by the practical method, up to and including the highest level - or childbirth, as it's also known.
The argument in favour of preserving sexual ignorance in children is that 'children are not the property of the state', or similar nonsense. Whereas they ARE the 'property' of their parents? Since when? This is typical of the psychotically individualistic attitude of those who to whom consumer 'choice' means 'freedom'. In fact, it is the darkest prison. The fact that they can refer to their children as cattle means they are not qualified to make any choices regarding their welfare.
For primary school children denied professional tutelage because of their parents' paranoia and neuroses, the other source of sex education is, of course, internet porn. This perverted veiw of sex might be even worse than no education at all, especially as far as girls are concerned.
Those who would exclude the state from all influence on education sing a different tune when they are told about a single mother of three claiming benefits and jumping the housing queue. Who's fault is that? Normally The Parents.
Either way, the state has an obligation to take decisions which will benefit the majority. Hordes of sexually-malfunctioning teenagers, spawning unintended dysfunctional state-dependent families onto the taxpayer's bounty is in nobody's interest.
That's why we have an education system in the first place. I'm sure the discombobulated genteel classes think that 'the whole theory of education is radically unsound' but luckily, they also prove that 'in Britain, education has no effect whatever.'
The only 'choice' for religious maniac parents is between having their 15 year old daughters educated about sex by qualified teachers, or by children a year older than them. Or simply by the practical method, up to and including the highest level - or childbirth, as it's also known.
The argument in favour of preserving sexual ignorance in children is that 'children are not the property of the state', or similar nonsense. Whereas they ARE the 'property' of their parents? Since when? This is typical of the psychotically individualistic attitude of those who to whom consumer 'choice' means 'freedom'. In fact, it is the darkest prison. The fact that they can refer to their children as cattle means they are not qualified to make any choices regarding their welfare.
For primary school children denied professional tutelage because of their parents' paranoia and neuroses, the other source of sex education is, of course, internet porn. This perverted veiw of sex might be even worse than no education at all, especially as far as girls are concerned.
Those who would exclude the state from all influence on education sing a different tune when they are told about a single mother of three claiming benefits and jumping the housing queue. Who's fault is that? Normally The Parents.
Either way, the state has an obligation to take decisions which will benefit the majority. Hordes of sexually-malfunctioning teenagers, spawning unintended dysfunctional state-dependent families onto the taxpayer's bounty is in nobody's interest.
That's why we have an education system in the first place. I'm sure the discombobulated genteel classes think that 'the whole theory of education is radically unsound' but luckily, they also prove that 'in Britain, education has no effect whatever.'
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