welsh sea

Just some pictures from Wales trip.

more from PC Brutality

A colleague told me he looks too camp to be the very epitome of police corruption but maybe that's the point. A wolf in sheep's clothing and all that...

yeah right, very funny

My son was flicking through a 'phobias' website the other day and laughing at some of the daft things people are scared of: buttons, toes, beards, fear itself etc. but I didn't believe him when he told me what this one meant:

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

Apparently it is the fear of long words. Other sources (online at least) confirm that it does indeed have some currency.

As stupid as it may be I'd sooner be hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobic than xenophobic any day. People say that xenophobia is a misnomer because it's about hatred and not fear as such. I beg to differ though- I think it is fear: it's a cowardly fear of difference by shallow, small minded, ill educated people so is exactly the right word really.

ps. I just spell checked this and hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia isn't in the Blogger dictionary for some reason. I think the dictionary compiler is a bit hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobic.

London Uked

On Saturday my girl and I went to see this. We didn't actually participate unfortunatley because we were lacking two things: ability to play and actual ukuleles. The first may not have precluded us from being part of it had we managed to secure the second. If you look carefully you can see my mum, her partner, me, my girl and 800+ totally bonkers people. It's stuff like this that gives me hope for the world. Brilliant stuff. The video title claims 'world record' but I think that remains (perhaps rightly) with Hawaii or Honolulu.

Pixton

I've been playing with this online comic creation tool. What a great time stealer this is. I can also see a lot of applications to teaching though so I can kinda justify it. Justifying the bad jokes is harder mind you. As a medium for making 'a statement' I can see a lot of potential though I suspect if I looked hard enough I'd find some seriously dodgy stuff on there already. My character is called PC Brutality. A true case of nominative determinism.

PC Brutality

CAVEAT LECTOR: the above comic strip does not necessarily represent anyone's views nor is it meant as a specific allegation. it's a kind of satire, ok?

shear joy

from the 606 message boards:

This is just unbelievable!!!!!!!!!
It has just hit the news that Hull have been charged with fielding an unregistered player at the end of January '09. Apparently when they signed Kamil Zayatte from Young Boys for £2.5M on 23 January this year, there had been some irregularities with the transfer and he was not formerly registered when Hull drew 2-2 with West Brom. West Brom have been awarded 3 points for that game instead of 1 but it has made no difference to them, they are still relegated.

However Hull have been stripped of their point, which puts them on the same points as Newcastle but with a poorer goal difference.
Newcastle have complained immediately and if the claim is upheld, Hull will be relegated retrospectively and the Toon will stay up!









Carlsberg don't do 606 posts for delusional Geordies but if they did this would probably be the best 606 post in the world!

On a lighter note...

I posted the US 'Shift happens' video earlier but this version reflects our location.


It's already a bit out of date which, in its own way, kind of proves the essential argument.

Now this really is embarrassing...

It would also be funny if it wasn't quite so sad and pathetic however insiduous the intent. Read Mirror article here

Before I tore the leaflet up myself I did wonder who these people were. I wish they'd found a random picture of me looking all white and happy and reasonable cos I wouldn't have let it lie with a mild protestation. What a bunch of stupid arses.

is my glass half full...

...or is it emptily reflecting the malevolent sneer of Griffin and the rest of his doing-their-best-to-not-mention-the-thinly-veiled-racist-antidemocratic-thuggery cronies. What do I see when I go out? Do I see one in every ten as a Nazi? Do I see them as ill educated fools, easily taken in by (what I think are) blatantly unconvincing lies? Or do I see 9 in every ten as decent people who may be daft/ young/ memory inhibited enough to vote Tory but know that the BNP = Fascism and are in fact more than bright enough to realise that a vote for the BNP is a vote for tyranny, violence and discrimination; that it spits in the face of all those that fought against it in Spain and during World War 2.

As today has worn on I have got over my initial response: "everyone is a self serving, deluded racist" and have been much more generous: "some people are just plain stupid". Griffin and Brons are vile liars. Their NF credentials and their on (and much more off) the record statements are clear but they are forced to present themselves as something they are not. It's like me saying I support A*****l in order to get a cup final ticket: Embarrassing betrayal. But they do it in the full knowledge that it may get them votes. It's an acknowledgement that their true feelings are unpalatable and make them unelectable. It's an admission of how out of touch they are.

By the way, if this sounds vitriolic it's lucky I'm writing now and not this morning or late last night.

It's a damn shame that I feel like there has been enough of a change to re-ignite my anger. It's a long time since I was involved in things like CND and the Anti-Nazi League and thought that those days were gone but I will join Unite Against Fascism (even though they seem to have a thing about capital letters) and I will protest the extensive and often apparently sypmathetic coverage the BNP get in the national media. Suddenly the ridiculuousness of 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' headline (Daily Mail in 1934) looks like it could be emulated.

Having said all that, and without getting at all complacent: they only won two seats. Factor in the voting patterns of extremist parties and the current crisis in confidence in mainstream politicians and it actuall seems pretty crap. You also have to remember that the BNP was top on most voting cards and, let's face it, we all have better things to do than read to the bottom of a long boring list and, anyway, what difference does it make? they said they're for our boys so why should I not believe them? etc. etc.

Articles like Hundal's in today's Guardian actually give me a lot of hope It's clearly set out and compelling. Amongst the points he raises is this:

"The BNP is not increasing its votes. In both Yorkshire and the north-west, its total number of votes fell from 2004. This absolutely does not mean that more people are being seduced by the BNP's propaganda. It means that Labour's share of the vote collapsed and went to other parties, thereby helping the BNP under a proportional system. If the party makes a comeback then there's no reason why the BNP will continue to get its MEPs elected."

(by the way Garry Aronsson, Griffin's running mate in these elections lists as a hobby "devising slow and terrible ways of paying back the Guardian-reading c****s who have betrayed the British people into poverty and slavery. I AM NOT JOKING." see here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/31/bnp-european-elections-facebook-expose - dodgy foreign sounding name that I think-it's in my little black book).

Another point raised elsewhere is the impact of so many people writing panicky articles about the BNP when they're still so bloody peripheral and pathetic so I'll shut up now.