Born Into the World of Terrorism……

‘The indoctrination of children into religion has never been such an important issue……’

In the 20th and 21st century science has given us overwhelming proof that ‘God’ was, and still is, the first and worst explanation for the existence of the Universe. In every area from traditional science to new techniques in analysing text, ‘holy’ books have been discredited. Unfortunately, this has failed to end religion which means the problem of indoctrinating children continues unabated. The very idea of indoctrinating a child is in my opinion abhorrent and is no different to a paedophile’s grooming. Children have the capacity to learn at an astonishing rate; it’s evolution’s answer to survival; hijacked by religion……

Since 9/11 a whole generation have been raised during the purported ‘war on terror’ and the sound of gunfire has become the lullaby they hear as they try to sleep. Their nightmares must be unimaginably horrific. The seemingly arbitrary nature of who is attacked simply adds to the problem. Let’s pretend that 9/11 happened according to the official narrative. A Saudi planned and paid for it; Saudis carried it out. But Afghans and Iraqis bore the brunt of Americas’ retaliation. The search for one man cost 750,000 innocent lives and displaced millions of others. Suddenly it is not so hard to see how radicalisation can happen……

Jessey Creesey

Religious education shouldn’t even be a lesson. We don’t teach Alchemy, Creationism or Voodoo so why are we teaching our children religious nonsense. It serves no useful purpose in seeking employment and perpetuates division. You can knock the cultural differences and inequality of Islam but bombing the fuck out of a selected few because of a fanatical minority is not productive, unless you happen to profit from the Military Industrial Complex. Saudis jail women for driving, beat them for being with a man they are not related to, stone people to death and behead people; the very behaviour condemned when ISIS/ISL/IS do it. The plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis is another example. So why aren’t the bombs falling on the Saudis and Israelis; the same reason, money……

This selective ‘war on terror’ will never stop until the radicalised Christian fundamentalists take a good look in the hypocritical mirror. But that’s the idea, ‘a war without end’ as the neo-cons call it and the radicalised Muslims are a convenient tool to perpetuate the scaremongering…..

I’m ashamed to be British. For that matter, I’m ashamed to be a Human Being……

Religious Education……

Religious Educating should not be ‘taught’ in our schools.  This is the 21st century, not the 19th.  Making statements of fact that are completely unsubstantiated, if not disproven by science.  We tell our kids there’s a Father Xmas and a Tooth Fairy but they’re little tricks parents play to say well done.  As soon as they develop some awareness and reasoning they forget Santa and Pester mum and Dad.

Religion is different.  It is a long term brainwashing strategy that’s worked quite adequately for a few thousand years.  Re-enforce the nice stories of Nohah then bring in the facts about God and what awaits children who don’t follow the doctrine.  Many kids like me went to Sunday School but that was the norm and it gave our parents a break.  A lot will question the validity of what they are being told and turn Atheist like me.  But some don’t.

RE has been given the title ‘Religious and Social’ education but that’s just smoke and mirrors.  When teaching other religions, questionable events in history become facts by way of veneration through time and a manuscript, of which there are hundreds of differing versions. Many of these ‘facts’ have been disproven by science, right from Genesis which God’s description of is impossible and it is only by evolving the interpretation the bible that it survived.

Stop wasting tax payers money indoctrinating children into a single minded process of thinking and replace it with physics or PE.  You wouldn’t make your kids Liberal Democrats and send them to Lib Dem schools so they leave as caring lefties with not much understanding of the Torys of Labour.  Let kids make up their own minds when they’ve been given all of the information……

Christmas Message for 2013……

As we leave 2013 behind us we prepare to celebrate Christmas.  Out come the tinsel and the glitter balls, in comes the tree and we send cards, but only to those who sent one to us last year in the spirit of Christmas.  The shops are full of eager consumers, all vying to get the latest digital device and ticking off the long list of requirements from their nearest and dearest.  The works Christmas party leaves its employees with a hangover and some embarrassing photographs, posted on social media sites for all to see.  We stock up our cupboards with special treats, mince pies and the obligatory tin of Quality Streets from which the purple ones are first to go and the orange creams left for the late comers.  This is pretty much the modus operandi of almost everyone, but amidst the frivolities those of you who are paying attention will have noticed the absence one fairly important detail: the birth of the alleged son of our Lord and our saviour, the baby Jesus, for whom this whole celebration is centred around.  Unless you happen to be a gloating parent of a primary school child, the central raison d’être for Christmas will probably not have even entered your thoughts.  It is also worth noting that the classical ‘nativity play’ stops just short of the point where King Herrod ruthlessly massacred ever male infant born within his kingdom, but the indoctrination has to lull its victims into a false sense of security before revealing the ‘catch 22’.  The hell and damnation can be woven in at a later date, once we have allowed our children to believe in the complete omnipotent nature of ‘god’s’ existence……

Christmas, along with Easter, Valentines’ Day, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, to name but a few, is nothing more than a commercial opportunity for the multi-nationals to generate sales.

Unless you are a devout Christian, in which case you need to get with the program, and then take advantage of the time you have been off work and get drunk, but have a re-think on some of your other actions.

Your kids don’t need anymore mind-numbing computer games and why buy so much food that you’ll still be finding out of date Christmas fodder in your cupboards in July 2014……

The Alternative……

By all means buy your closest friends a token gift; hand made with thought speaks volumes.  Most people would appreciate a bottle of £5 plonk and the ridiculous game of only buying for the people who bought for you last year is hardly in the spirit of Christmas.  I can’t think of anything more satisfying than receiving a card explaining how you’ve donated the money that would have paid for your gift to a charity that cares for the hundreds of thousands of orphaned, displaced and starving people who are only in that position because of US and UK foreign policy.  Four million, that’s 4,000,000,000 Syrians are currently in dire need of assistance for food, shelter and medical supplies.  870 million people are classed as malnourished.  The displaced Palestinians are in need of help as they eek out an existence whilst the occupying Israeli forces continue to encroach on what little territory they have left despite dozens of UN resolutions against Israel who are in contravention of international law but continue to receive military assistance and hardware from the US and UK.

The majority of suffering in the ‘third world’ is as a direct result of the actions of the UK, US and the Netherlands’ historical desire to build empires.  In the 19th century we killed the food supply for fun and now the only animals left can just about support safaries for the wealthy.  Think of the difference your Christmas spending, which is meaningless to all but the devout practicing Christians, could make to the people of the world.  I doubt whether the Prime Minister or his contemporaries will give the true meaning of Christmas even a passing thought as they rip into their presents on Christmas day.  How long he can afford to keep his central heating on will not feature, nor will his electricity consumption, water bill, council tax and the endless other considerations that his minions are hard pressed to pay after the celebration of the birth of Christ.  I doubt he will give a passing thought to the British troops who lost their lives needlessly in ‘the war on terror’, or to the devastated families they left behind.  No, Christmas at the PMs will be all Champagne and laughter, as it will at Nick Cleggs’ and the others who are responsible for our suffering.  What more could a detached upper-class Etonian under the control of the global elite wish for at Christmas……

May we all one day live in an equal secular society that makes no categorical judgement other than ‘member of the human race’, that takes only what is needed to live in a warm, sheltered, loving environment……

Make someone’s Christmas by sending your excessive, indulgent spending so they can sleep in shelter and drink clean water……

Happy Equinox for the 21st……

The Astonishing Arrogance of Humans……

Early philosophers surmised that the Earth was at the centre of the universe and not without good reasoning.  After all the ‘heavens’ appeared to rotate around us as if we were static.  There was an absence wind coming from one direction, which one might have expected had we been travelling on a constant course through space.  It was also thought that the lights coming from ‘heavens’ may have been placed at specific distances from the Earth on a set of concentric crystal spheres.  This anthropomorphic view also fitted in nicely with the main monotheistic religions which had established themselves as the absolute authority handed down by ‘god’ with mankind at the pinnacle of creation.

One often wonders if ancient philosophers hadn’t worked out some of the problems with this model far earlier than the evidence they left behind suggests, which would doubtless have been destroyed by the authority of the church, that is if they had been brave enough to have committed such reasoning to parchment for fear of reprisal and death.  We tend toward giving credit for the major steps forward in astronomy to the philosophers of the 14^th century although many great works were produced, particularly in the Far East, long before this.

It was Nicolaus Copernicus, working with data meticulously collected by others, that first dared to suggest that the planets revolved around the Sun, later backed up by Tyhco Brahe who observed a supernovae, proving that the ‘heavens’ were not static, and the works of Kepler and Galileo.  In a little under one hundred years the view of the Catholic Church had been overturned, although it cost its detractors dearly, some paying with their lives, others effectively ending their careers.  It is worth taking a moment to contemplate that a little over 100 years ago the Milky Way was thought to be everything there was; our Universe.  100 years before that just the planets in our locality with everything else ‘painted’ upon a set of concentric crystal spheres.  Philosophers throughout history had questioned what would later be called the ‘weak anthropic principle’; the notion that we just happened to be inhabitants of the planet that sits so neatly in the centre of everything, with every other observable body circling around us.  This is obviously; the view our species, being the most important in ‘creation’, would, being placed at the centre of everything, would observe:  “What would see if were sitting on another planet?”  I’m sure ancient philosophers secretly wondered.

Having moved on in our acceptance of the Universe and our total insignificance in it, the human race still maintains an astoundingly arrogant opinion of ourselves.  For example; as Voyager leaves the Heliosheath, the point at which the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas, it is the furthest man made object from us, yet in universal measurements it is barely a stones throw from us.  It has yet to pass any of 3 or 4 hundred billion other stars in the Milky Way or to reach any of the other 3 or 4 hundred billion galaxies or pass any of the hundreds billions stars within them.  The chances of ‘intelligent’ life intercepting the Voyager probe are miniscule, but if they did, I have a vision of the instant mashed potato aliens falling all over the flight deck with laughter; “Those pesky humans again, wah, wah, wah!”.  NASA even changed the disc on the second Voyager to show the man and woman wearing clothes, should we leave ourselves open to embarrassment, or worse, the beings that discover it.  It is that one detail particularly that sets the scene for mankind.

Take yourself back to the 70’s, you’ve completed your PhD (after all it’s hardly rocket science), landed a dream job working for the worlds most prestigious space outfit, NASA, and you are a part of the steering committee that decides what to include on the gold disk.  Now, presuming some of the MIT or Caltech education sunk in, you’ll already have worked out that the chances of another ‘intelligent’ life form finding your probe is vanishingly small.  The distances involved are immense, your probe has a limited life span and by the time it reached another ‘intelligent’ species the human race will be as ancient to them as the Jurassic Period is to us now.  However, assuming all goes to plan and your probe is intercepted in the distant future they’ll be able to hang in their space museum with a little tag that reads ‘Extinct race from the Milky Way who were easily embarrassed’.  I need go no further in demonstrating the stupidly arrogant belief in ourselves.

We are the product of an unimaginably large set of coincidences.  Life may, in fact almost certainly will, have developed somewhere out there in the vastness of space.  In all probability evolution V1.2 will have produced something completely unrecognisable from us.  Any contact between us is vanishingly small due to the distances and time involved and either one of us will doubtless be extinct by the time our paths collide.  The whole UFO phenomena is just another example of our need to coexist and conspiracy theories apart, I think we would know if we were being ‘buzzed’ by an advanced civilisation, and what use would they have for us?  Technology?  Food?  A comfortable new home?  Again we apply our arrogant opinions to the problem.

We are a freak of nature and one hell bent on destroying our planet and its inhabitants.  Take a step back, apply logic and accept that we are for all practical purposes alone in the space-time we occupy.  Now we can back to the business of destroying things in the name of globalisation, religion and progress……

Behold, it’s a Miracle……

With all of suffering in the world, the deaths of innocent women and children in conflicts, the displaced, the starving, the diseases that we can so easily cure and the abject poverty in which so many of God’s children live, it’s nice to unburden oneself from feelings of guilt and hear of some of the goodness that happens……

As the summer draws to close and the leaves fall from the trees, the trinket and postcard sellers of Lourdes, Eastern France, pack away their stalls until the next season of gullible pilgrims make the journey in search of that illusive miracle cure.

Not the Real Virgin Mary

The 2013 season has proven to be a good one for the Catholic Church and the people of Lourdes, not to mention Mrs. Daneli Castelli who was this year’s lucky recipient of miracle status.  Mrs. Castelli actually experienced the miracle on 4 May 1989 after visiting the E. Coli, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and Faecal ridden baths that six million other hopefuls have bathed their puss filled wounds and drooled into that season.  And her miracle cure was the disappearance of a small fibrous legion (that doctors had operated on only a few months earlier)……

Its men that hate each other

Mrs. Castelli is officially the 69^th miracle to have happened at Lourdes since the Virgin revealed herself to an impressionable teenager in 1860.  Among the long list of miracles (which I won’t bore you with) there have lots of cures for which modern medicine works pretty well and nothing particularly exciting like the re-growing of an amputated limb.  Call me a sceptic but 69 rather minor miracles in 150 years does not seem very impressive to me, so let’s do the math.  I’ve missed out the boring calculations but your chances of being the recipient of a miracle is 13,043,478 to 1 or, about the same as scooping the jackpot on the National Lottery……

It’s just a suggestion but wouldn’t it be better if the six million visitors gave the not unsubstantial cost of a holiday in Lourdes to a charity?  That way there is much higher probability of science finding a cure than you drinking from a rat piss infested pool in France……

It has always struck me as a little strange that ‘the almighty’ omniscient, omnipresent creator, (and yes ‘omnipresent’ does

God

mean he’s watching over you ever time you shit or crack one off when Sharon Stone’s on TV), can only manage a miserly 69 miracles when he, presumably, has the power to end all human misery in one godly shake of his ‘God Rod’…….

An Improbable Result……

It is easy to comprehend the current viewpoint of the ‘Creationists’ who, under the weight of indisputable empirical evidence have had to admit defeat with regard to the biblical account(s) of creation given in Genesis and accept that all ‘life’ evolved slowly over an inconceivably large amount of time, but in order to ‘save’ God have staked their entire argument on the strong anthropic principle.  The weak anthropic principle essentially states that the conditions we observe in the universe are consistent with the conditions needed for us to exist.  This appears to be pretty obvious and self explanatory; in another universe or an unobservable, distant part of our own universe where the conditions are incompatible with supporting life, then clearly there would be no-one to observe it.  The weak anthropic principle holds some philosophical and, some would argue, scientific validity.  Although highly improbable, the evolution of an organism with the capability to consider its own existence, even if was unimaginably different from us, it would still hold that the conditions required to bring about that eventuality are consistent with the weak anthropic principle.  However, the Creationists rely on the strong anthropic principle which is an altogether different proposition, and one which is difficult to argue for even in the forgiving area of philosophy and has no place in the realms of science, even as a hypothesis.  The strong anthropic principle states that, not only is the universe in which live and observe compatible with life, but that the initial conditions were ‘set up’ to purposely evolve to that end.  This is quite obviously so highly improbable that it cannot possibly hold any validity as a scientific theory and immediately throws up the ‘Creator Paradox’.  If the initial conditions were ‘set up’ with purpose, they would require an entity to carry out that task, which begs the question “who created the creator”?  [Ad infinitum]……

There is, however, some common ground between Physicists and Creationist in that most reasoning is inherently and, to a degree, inescapably anthropocentric.  This is for the simple reason that ‘we’, by which I mean the Human race, exists within the universe we are observing, making measurements of, and developing theories about.  As we cannot step outside of our universe, almost all theories will, at some point, fall foul of the basic assumptions developed from our own experiences.  When given careful consideration, almost all of our scientific knowledge makes certain assumptions.  For an example of how we tend to apply what we think we know; take Einstein’s Theories of Special and General Relativity.  I recently re-read his revolutionary papers (for the 6^th, 7^th or possibly 8^th time).  Many people have some understanding of the basic principles underlying them but when given some serious thought all notions of ‘place’ and ‘time’ are, in reality, meaningless, no matter how counter intuitive it seems.  Admittedly, at the velocities we move, and the restrictions of being glued to the surface of a planet, we can still agree the meaning of ‘the café on the high street at 11am’, so it doesn’t cause us too much inconvenience, but ‘time’ and ‘space’ are not only malleable but only measurable by an arbitrary system of co-ordinates that could not adequately convey information to an observer in another part of the galaxy.  Similarly, our perception of time is governed by our experience.  Try to explain to a friend what ‘time’ is?(but assume they are light years away with a good mobile signal!)  I guarantee you’ll come unstuck before the end of the first sentence, because we are only able to describe time by our anthropocentric experience.  According to the laws of physics time and space are symmetrical, reversible and favour no particular direction, which runs contrary to our everyday experience.  Have you ever seen a scrambled egg spontaneously un-scramble?  Probably not; but wait long enough and theoretically it will happen.  The idea that time is reversible is not disallowed, just incredible hard to achieve.  In principle all you need to know is the position and velocity of every particle in the universe and put them back where they were.  Clearly, this is astoundingly unlikely to be achieved but it is possible just improbable.  One of the fundamental obstacles to any kind of time reversal is the measurement problem.  Not unlike Einstein’s theories, the measurement problem throws an inescapable spanner in the works.  For it says that it is impossible to know both the velocity and position of a particle at the same time with enough accuracy to ‘reverse time’……

It is when we get into the realm of Quantum Mechanics that our existence and consciousness really start to make things difficult.  This not just because the sums are complicated but because we simply do not have the language or cognitive ability to visualise what is happening at the atomic level and below.  It transpires that the fundamental particles that make up everything in the observable universe do not have a locality, not even if you attempt to assign an arbitrary co-ordinate system.  They are spread out in ‘space’, in more than one place at once and, to further complicate matters, the act of observation (making a measurement) affects their behaviour……

To a scientist seeking concrete answers to questions about the universe in which we live, the nature of time and space and the ‘rules’ upon which it operates, these things can be profoundly unsettling which may well be one of the reasons that many of the worlds brightest, pioneering scientists have ended up in mental institutions or worse……

Even taking everything I have learned into consideration I remain convinced that we are simply the highly improbable statistical outcome of the second law of thermodynamics and the ever increasing entropy that eventually results in life given an infinite amount of ‘time’.  We serve no purpose and are most definitely not guided by the hand of ‘God’……

To even think about the universe from our point of view is to credit ourselves with a degree of importance that we simply don’t have.  The universe doesn’t consider us and it will go on increasing in entropy long after we are gone.  Maybe at some time in the very distant future another thinking organism will doubtless be asking the same question and they will know as much about us as we do about them……

Syria – War in the Middle East……

‘In world politics there is no such thing as an enemy or ally.   There are no parameters by which we are able to define them.  Democratic or dictatorship, secular or theocracy, the political reaction appears to have no relationship to right and wrong, good and bad or, ultimately, human suffering.  So, what is going on……?’

Syria is like a black hole in the Middle East, with historical enemies bordering the event horizon.  If it behaves like its cosmological counterpart there will come a point of no return and all sides will be inevitably drawn in.  The ensuing conflict will destroy infrastructure, cost hundreds of thousands of lives and leave a political vacuum in its place……

Friend or Foe……

There are many places in the world which have seen conflict in the past several decades.  Some have been locked in ongoing battles that have seen immeasurable suffering; ethnic cleansing, rape, murder, starvation, displacement, the kidnap and conversion of children into soldiers.  Most, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, go unreported and with little intervention from the West other than a token humanitarian contribution, much of which is diverted by the perpetrators to their own ends.

A look at the track record of western governments demonstrates the point.  Rwanda, the Congo, Somalia, the list is endless.  When human suffering is at its worst the governments of the west pay little, if any, attention.  Disputes in the Middle East, however, attract more interest.

If you were a conspiracy theorist it may even appear to be the culmination of a plan.  The uprising spread anti-clockwise around the Mediterranean with military support from the west until it reached Syria; there it has been allowed to continue……

Enemies in Every Direction……

If you are in any doubt about the potential gravity of the situation, take a look at the map below.

On its northern border there’s Turkey whose relationship with Syria could described as ‘strained’ at best.  However, since the beginning of the ‘civil war’ Turkey has ended diplomatic relations with Syria altogether.  Next there is Iraq; enemy of Syria and its ally, Iran.  To the south there is Jordan and to the west, Lebanon.   Although Jordan and Lebanon are friendly to each other, factions within them are vehement enemies of factions within Syria.  Israel is an historical enemy of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Jordan and virtually every state in the region as well as remaining an occupying force in Palestine despite endless UN resolutions.

If one considers where the major ‘super powers’ from the East and West affiliations lay, the Syrian conflict could easily turn into a new cold war or even world war three……

Ancient History……

The present day Middle East has been through several phases over the past 3000 years.  None of the countries on a contemporary map existed.  It was the cradle of civilisation and whilst ‘Great’ Britain was in the time referred to as ‘The Dark Ages’, the East where contemplating philosophy, mathematics and astronomy.  The invention of religion has to take some of the blame for the current disputes as does the West which is largely responsible for drawing the borders within which sit the countries of The Middle East……

Solutions……

There are none.  But fuelling the fires of historical monotheistic disputes is not going to help.  It will ultimately lead to more death and destruction, and the only winners will be the Military Industrial Complex and the transfer of wealth to those who already have more than their fair share……

The unannounced arrival of a large asteroid or sudden reversal of the poles might help to focus mankind’s attention but in all probability they’ll just continue fighting over whose ‘god’ is responsible.  If you’re looking for intelligent life in the Universe, you won’t find any on Earth……

Perspectives on the War on Terror……

The hyperbole used by politicians contains almost all of the extraneous grammatical tautologies possible as I’m sure their armies of spin doctors know all too well, but it only adds to the drama whilst demonstrating to anybody with a reasonable grasp of the English language their ineptitude and, for those who do not examine the analogous statements, it only appears to add linguistic gravitas to their authority……

 

Redundancy and Tautology……

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi is actually quite amusing to watch on TV programmes such as ‘Question Time’ as she struggles to string together coherent sentences.  Quite how such a brainless individual managed to reach the House of Lords evades me but there are no rules in peerage.  On a recent edition of ‘Question Time’ she continually referred to “extremist terrorists”.  In doing so I feel she provided  a useful public service by differentiating between the “extremist terrorists” and the more moderate, left wing terrorists who sit on tube trains wearing vests made from bubble wrap, threatening to carry on popping bubbles until their demands are met.  Lady Warsi; terrorists are terrorists, wherever they come from, whoever they purport to represent and whatever course of action they take.  Otherwise they would be protestors or campaigners.  Calling them “Extremist terrorists” is a grammatical redundancy as anyone who is a terrorist is by definition extreme.

A similar but no less effective use of pervasive language is to define terrorist groups by the religion they practice.  Acts of terrorism perpetrated by people of the Islamic faith is always highlighted as such, whilst acts of retaliation against them are portrayed as faith neutral.  This is particularly apparent in the Middle East where the Palestinians are ‘Islamic’ terrorists or ‘fundamentalists’ but the oppressive occupying Israeli forces are never referred to as ‘Jewish oppressors’.  The same applies to almost all conflicts in Islamic countries where the ‘Christian’ coalition are the occupying force.  This use of language is not only one sided and divisive but does a disservice to the majority of Muslims who are neither extreme nor fundamental.  It is akin to dividing paedophiles into ‘heterosexual’, ‘homosexual’, ‘lesbian’ or ‘incestuous’.  Paedophiles, like terrorists, only require one adjective to convey their twisted ideology and the acts they perpetrate……

It Takes Two to Tango……

The US and UK have a very short memory when it comes to events in world history.  The current bouts of ideological warfare started with 9/11, the ‘axis of evil’ and the ‘war on terror’.  In reality it is nothing more than a continuation of events stretching back through the annals of time.  One doesn’t need to look too far into the past to see the civil rights movement, which only ‘won’ equality for African-Americans in the 1960s or, more recently, the end of apartheid in South Africa.  Neither do you need a history lesson to see the ongoing oppression of the people of Tibet or Burma.  Even the establishment of the United States of America required land grabs and attacks against the indigenous population……

Democracy in Action……

There are between 192 and 195 countries in the world.  Officially, approximately half are democratic.  This does depend largely on your viewpoint and how you define a democratic country.  Personally, I don’t even consider the UK as truly democratic; as for Russia and many others, democracy is far from an actuality.  Whatever your opinion and by whatever means you judge democracy, it has little affect on the relationships between countries.  The US and UK are close allies of Saudi Arabia which is not democratic in any way and has a questionable record of human rights abuses.  However, we have lucrative arms contracts with Saudi Arabia and commit little parliamentary resources to challenge them regarding the treatment of their citizens and especially their treatment of women.

Post 9/11 we joined the US invasion of Iraq, based on the allegation that they could attack us with only 45 minutes warning, possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had links with ‘al Qaeda.  None was found to be true.  No WMDs were found and the 45 minute warning was proven to be false along with the links to ‘al Qaeda’.  We also joined the US in the invasion of Afghanistan; this time to dismantle the ‘al Qaeda’ training camps and capture Osama Bin Laden who was accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks, although to this day the US government has failed to provide any evidence that this was the case, other than the clearly fake video evidence conveniently discovered in a house in Afghanistan after the invasion.  In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the Taliban offered to extradite Bin Laden providing the US present the evidence, which they were unable to do, leading to the invasion of Afghanistan and the loss of countless innocent civilian lives.

Ex-Best Friends

The US and UK; self appointed police force of the ‘free’ world, pick and choose who are the enemy and who aren’t.  It has nothing to do with human rights, democracy, religion or any other tangible, publicly available information or policy.  As Colonel Gaddafi discovered, one day you’re in the club, the next your membership has been revoked and the armed forces have joined your detractors to over through you……

In Summary……

Right and wrong has little, if any, relationship to the foreign policies of the west.  Money, oil and strategic concerns drive such policy.  Whilst I do not condone any acts of violence by any side in a conflict, it is not beyond reason to see why desperate acts of suicide bombings are undertaken by people who feel that their voices, culture, history and claims on territory can lead individuals to take such inhumane actions.

We live in a corrupted world where military campaigns are waged against whole populations, 98% of whom have no involvement in the extreme fringes of what is happening in their homeland.  Meanwhile, by stealth and under the guise of security our basic human rights are being undermined.

If we judge the death toll of innocent civilians caught up in the ‘war on terror’ as a marker by which to judge the aggressors we find the real terrorists are the US, UK and their allies……

Abu Qatada Sticks Two Prongs up at the Establishment……

‘Home Secretaries come and go, ex Prime Ministers die and Elton John’s hair is still just wrong, but in these uncertain times you can rely on Abu Qatada to bring some nostalgic certainty into our austere lives……’

 

Feckless Home Secretary Theresa May, 56, has announced that a new treaty signed by the British and Jordanians will ‘finally make possible’ the deportation of Abu Qatada.  However, she warned that once the treaty is fully ratified it does not mean that Abu Qatada will be ‘on a plane to Jordan within days’.  Clearly, these considerations were not taken into account when the British Government were complicit in the ‘extraordinary rendition’ of UK citizens to Guantanamo Bay and straight into the hands of a country that does torture terrorist suspects; America.

Presumably the latest treaty is part of the tireless work successive Home Secretaries have undertaken to protect the human rights of the Jordanian people.  We can be assured that the Jordanian Government will honour the treaty based on their current record.  Areas of concern expressed by Human Rights Organisations include:

• limitations on the right of citizens to change their government peacefully
• cases of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest, denial of due process and prolonged detention without trial
• limited freedom of speech and state interference of the ‘free’ press
• restricted freedom of assembly and the right to demonstrate
• legal discrimination and harassment of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender communities
• restricted labour rights and abuse of immigrant workers
• loss of Jordanian nationality and discrimination against Palestinians

So, no reason for Theresa May to question the reliability of the new treaty, or believe that the Jordanian authorities are likely to ignore it……

Even without the treaty other options are available.  One proposal is the ‘temporary’ withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.  Mrs May even suggested that we withdraw completely; clearly an advancement of justice for all of humanity and one familiar to her husband.  Details of when, and for how long, any temporary withdrawal from the ECHR will last are unclear but when Mrs May provides this information perhaps it will offer up an opportunity for the BNP, EDL and other right wing groups to ‘clear up’ some of their ‘problems’ at the same time……

Another Dangerous Cleric

If all else fails, maybe we should take a leaf out of the American’s rule book and use our newly aquired drones to summarily execute Mr Qatada when he pops out to Waitrose; taking care not to kill too many ‘innocent’ civilians with the exception of his wife and children of course.  Obviously, Abu Qatada will shop at Waitrose being one of the many beneficiaries of our generous welfare system that is solely responsible for the appalling state of the economy, stagnant growth and complete failure to reduce the budget deficit.  However, if we do ‘deal’ with the Abu Qatada problem I’m certain the economic benefits will be immediately apparent, even to Gideon……

Why does the Government so desperately want to deport Abu Qatada?  After all, surely he is less dangerous living in the UK where we can continue to breach many of his fundamental human rights and deny him access to his army of loyal followers.  If by some miracle intervention of the prophet the Jordanian court found him not guilty he would be free to start plotting the overthrow of the British Government.  With enough votes and the help of the Lib Dems he could seize power and lock up Theresa May for years without charge and effectively suspend Habeas Corpus, take control of the drones and indiscriminately order the extra-judicial execution of ‘suspected’ terrorists and even invade sovereign states on the untrue premise that they possess WMD’s.  Doubtless he would do this in the name of our security whilst secretly lining the pockets of his newly found filthy rich ‘friends’ who would surround him like flies jockeying for position on a freshly laid dog turd……

AND THEN WHAT SORT OF A ‘DEMOCRACY’ WOULD WE BE LIVING IN…..?

Happy Easter…….

‘As we celebrate Easter with all the pomp and spender of rich western churches, I though I’d remind you of the real value of Easter……’

 

Jesus Christ probably didn’t exist.  And even if he did and you accept the contradictory bile spat out by your Guru I still don’t think you’ve got the message the Crucifixion is claimed to have purveyed.

Just as a reminder, in case all of the ‘praise be’s’ and songs full of meaningless crap about how your saviour died to free the planet of sins, here’s a reminder of the ‘message’ and how it’s all worked out now that your churches has influence over most of the people on the planet.

The Basic Message ‘Everybody be nice to anybody else who agrees that I’m the one ‘true’ God and murder anyone who disgrees’

 

‘And here’s the outcome of your monotheistic outlook on goodness’

 

So when your waving your hands toward heaven and stuffing fivers into the collection dish think what part your ‘god’ had to play in the rape of teenaged girls, and boys.  The burning of villages, female mutilation, starvation, orphans; the list goes on but is your conscience clear?  Is your god even real or have been told that since you were a child and blindly follow like the Nazis did?