Pausing for breath
Yours truly is about to take a well earned holiday so don't expect to hear much from me for the next week or so.
I will be back though, I promise!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Knee Jerk
Sometimes I wonder whether the government uses its brains as, judging by the frequency with which its collective knee jerk, it would appear to only use its spinal column.
A government drugs advisor has tried to make a point about which drugs, including those which are legally available, are the most dangerous. He has tried to base it upon science, just take a look at his piece at CiF from yesterday, he is open about the potential risks of smoking weed, he is also open about how dangerous it is compared to tobacco. As soon as he points out that some legal drugs are more dangerous than some illegal ones he gets sacked.
How is anyone expected to take drugs policy seriously when the government clearly wont listen to facts and science? What has this man actually done wrong? How can we take the law seriously when the law is an ass and anyone that points it out gets sacked?
If kids ask me about drugs I'll be open and honest with them, I'll explain what the dangers are but I wont pretend that the dangers are something that they're not. I hope because of that I get taken seriously. Why the government can't do the same is utterly beyond me. Actually it's not, it's because their terrified of the equally knee jerk reaction of the tabloids.
Just like the whole stranger danger hysteria I blogged about yesterday it's time to grow the fuck up.
Sometimes I wonder whether the government uses its brains as, judging by the frequency with which its collective knee jerk, it would appear to only use its spinal column.
A government drugs advisor has tried to make a point about which drugs, including those which are legally available, are the most dangerous. He has tried to base it upon science, just take a look at his piece at CiF from yesterday, he is open about the potential risks of smoking weed, he is also open about how dangerous it is compared to tobacco. As soon as he points out that some legal drugs are more dangerous than some illegal ones he gets sacked.
How is anyone expected to take drugs policy seriously when the government clearly wont listen to facts and science? What has this man actually done wrong? How can we take the law seriously when the law is an ass and anyone that points it out gets sacked?
If kids ask me about drugs I'll be open and honest with them, I'll explain what the dangers are but I wont pretend that the dangers are something that they're not. I hope because of that I get taken seriously. Why the government can't do the same is utterly beyond me. Actually it's not, it's because their terrified of the equally knee jerk reaction of the tabloids.
Just like the whole stranger danger hysteria I blogged about yesterday it's time to grow the fuck up.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Hysteria
I first saw this story in the Daily Mail and as with many PC gone mad stories I naturally assumed that there was something we hadn't been told, that little fact that seems to have been missed out that suddenly turns the whole thing around. It seems though that in this case they really are reporting the truth! (Although as with the boy who cried wolf, I don't think anyone can really blame me for my initial scepticism.)
Anyway via Bucket of Tongues I found my way to the Watford Observer where I read pretty much the same story (so what I thought, it's probably owned by the Mail anyway) however in the comment section is press release from Watford Council attempting to deny it all but in the process actually confirming it.
It is true that part of the reason is that the play areas are intended for under 16s, hence they don't want adults "just hanging around" and I imagine that what they mean by this is a bunch of 17 year old chavs intimidating the kids. And so having staff there to keep an eye on things may well be a good thing if there is a potential problem from this kind of behaviour (I don't know, I'm not familiar with Watford). However, and more tellingly it also has the lines,
"Adults who are not CRB checked should not be on the site. This reduces any potential risks to children and ensure they are able to play freely."
It screams stranger danger paranoia. Unless it is physically unsafe for adults to go into an area there is no reason, zero, zilch for stopping parents from playing with their children or watching them play. Can you imagine if they did? Crikey, child falls over and someone else's Dad helps them up! We'd be doomed I tell you! We'd all be doomed!
The paranoia about paedophiles has been growing for a long time. It's not something that happened yesterday. It began, properly, following the Soham murders and the name and shame campaign of the News of the World. The rest of the tabs have followed suit and have continued to hype cases that have occurred to the nth degree. The Madaline McCann and Vanessa George cases have of course been the most publicised but there have been many others and they have all been used by the tabloids to scare the shit out of parents. In actual fact your child is more likely to be killed by lightning than by a stranger but no one seems to notice that, or that the biggest threat to children's safety is the ever increasing amount of traffic on our roads.
You want to protect your child? Don't teach "stranger danger", teach the green cross code, fuck nut.
Of course to put all this entirely at the feet of the tabloids is rather unfair. It is not them have introduced the ever increasing amount of "child protection" legislation, it is the government. Yes the government should serve the people but simply doing what is demanded of them when they have been whipped into a state of hysteria by the red tops is not serving them. Explaining calmly and rationally what the threats are to children is serving them not just entering into knee jerk legislation. In fact if it means that we have less adult volunteers at sports clubs etc it may kill more kids than it saves if more kids end up obese,
It is time for us all to sit up and think like adults. For our children's sake.
Update - Update - Update - Update
Watford Borough Council have released a revised statement regarding the play grounds and have emphasised the safety aspects of not having adults cluttering up an adventurous activity site.
As such I offer my unreserved apology for misunderstanding the original statement as made to the Watford Observer.
I do however stand by my comments regarding the tabloids, the government and peadophile hysteria
I first saw this story in the Daily Mail and as with many PC gone mad stories I naturally assumed that there was something we hadn't been told, that little fact that seems to have been missed out that suddenly turns the whole thing around. It seems though that in this case they really are reporting the truth! (Although as with the boy who cried wolf, I don't think anyone can really blame me for my initial scepticism.)
Anyway via Bucket of Tongues I found my way to the Watford Observer where I read pretty much the same story (so what I thought, it's probably owned by the Mail anyway) however in the comment section is press release from Watford Council attempting to deny it all but in the process actually confirming it.
It is true that part of the reason is that the play areas are intended for under 16s, hence they don't want adults "just hanging around" and I imagine that what they mean by this is a bunch of 17 year old chavs intimidating the kids. And so having staff there to keep an eye on things may well be a good thing if there is a potential problem from this kind of behaviour (I don't know, I'm not familiar with Watford). However, and more tellingly it also has the lines,
"Adults who are not CRB checked should not be on the site. This reduces any potential risks to children and ensure they are able to play freely."
It screams stranger danger paranoia. Unless it is physically unsafe for adults to go into an area there is no reason, zero, zilch for stopping parents from playing with their children or watching them play. Can you imagine if they did? Crikey, child falls over and someone else's Dad helps them up! We'd be doomed I tell you! We'd all be doomed!
The paranoia about paedophiles has been growing for a long time. It's not something that happened yesterday. It began, properly, following the Soham murders and the name and shame campaign of the News of the World. The rest of the tabs have followed suit and have continued to hype cases that have occurred to the nth degree. The Madaline McCann and Vanessa George cases have of course been the most publicised but there have been many others and they have all been used by the tabloids to scare the shit out of parents. In actual fact your child is more likely to be killed by lightning than by a stranger but no one seems to notice that, or that the biggest threat to children's safety is the ever increasing amount of traffic on our roads.
You want to protect your child? Don't teach "stranger danger", teach the green cross code, fuck nut.
Of course to put all this entirely at the feet of the tabloids is rather unfair. It is not them have introduced the ever increasing amount of "child protection" legislation, it is the government. Yes the government should serve the people but simply doing what is demanded of them when they have been whipped into a state of hysteria by the red tops is not serving them. Explaining calmly and rationally what the threats are to children is serving them not just entering into knee jerk legislation. In fact if it means that we have less adult volunteers at sports clubs etc it may kill more kids than it saves if more kids end up obese,
It is time for us all to sit up and think like adults. For our children's sake.
Update - Update - Update - Update
Watford Borough Council have released a revised statement regarding the play grounds and have emphasised the safety aspects of not having adults cluttering up an adventurous activity site.
As such I offer my unreserved apology for misunderstanding the original statement as made to the Watford Observer.
I do however stand by my comments regarding the tabloids, the government and peadophile hysteria
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Coming Soon
Due to an unfortunate instance if mistaken identity yours truly has spent the last 24 hours dealing with an organisation that make sub prime lenders like Ocean Finance look like boring pin striped bankers with bowler hats and must surely be only a step away from door step lending sharks.
However, being the cautious individual I am I shall be waiting for the promised letter from them that will confirm that I do not owe them any money before doing a proper rant about the slimy little oiks.
Watch this space!
Due to an unfortunate instance if mistaken identity yours truly has spent the last 24 hours dealing with an organisation that make sub prime lenders like Ocean Finance look like boring pin striped bankers with bowler hats and must surely be only a step away from door step lending sharks.
However, being the cautious individual I am I shall be waiting for the promised letter from them that will confirm that I do not owe them any money before doing a proper rant about the slimy little oiks.
Watch this space!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Playing with the lives of children
There has been a poll carried out by Manchester University (and, I should add in fairness, funded by GSK, manufacturers of the HPV vaccine) on teenage girls who have been given the HPV vaccine. Some 79% of those polled said it would make them more cautious about sex. Now the important word there is more ie its not that they were cautious before and they have remained cautious, but that they are now more cautious. ie they are either less likely to have sex or more likely to use contraception if they do.
And that is a good thing.
When you do a google search about it you will find that at the time of writing (7.55am, 27 October 2009) that every media source to have so far reported on it have led with this positive news, all of them.
Except one.
Can you guess which paper managed to turn this story round with the headline
Cancer jab may make us more promiscuous say 1 in 7 girls
Any idea which paper, with a history of campaigning against this vaccine, of giving credence to the views of such knob ends as Stephen Green (and I am Christian by the way, one that thinks Green is a fucking embarrassment to the rest of us) and of generally wanting to keep women well the thumb may have trotted out this one? Can you guess? Can you? Are you there yet?
Of course you are. The Daily Mail. What an unmitigated disgrace.
There has been a poll carried out by Manchester University (and, I should add in fairness, funded by GSK, manufacturers of the HPV vaccine) on teenage girls who have been given the HPV vaccine. Some 79% of those polled said it would make them more cautious about sex. Now the important word there is more ie its not that they were cautious before and they have remained cautious, but that they are now more cautious. ie they are either less likely to have sex or more likely to use contraception if they do.
And that is a good thing.
When you do a google search about it you will find that at the time of writing (7.55am, 27 October 2009) that every media source to have so far reported on it have led with this positive news, all of them.
Except one.
Can you guess which paper managed to turn this story round with the headline
Cancer jab may make us more promiscuous say 1 in 7 girls
Any idea which paper, with a history of campaigning against this vaccine, of giving credence to the views of such knob ends as Stephen Green (and I am Christian by the way, one that thinks Green is a fucking embarrassment to the rest of us) and of generally wanting to keep women well the thumb may have trotted out this one? Can you guess? Can you? Are you there yet?
Of course you are. The Daily Mail. What an unmitigated disgrace.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Barnet v Darlington
I couldn't really let my presence at this game go without comment, simply because it was so utterly awful.
I've been following Barnet through thick and thin (mostly thin) since 1992 and have also followed the lower division teams of where ever I happen to be living at the time. So I've seen an awful lot of crap football over the years. I know what crap football looks, sounds and yes, even smells like. And trust me, as crap games go, this was up there with the best. It was terrible, it really was.
Now I know the first half was played in horizontal drizzle so Brazil like following football may not have been what we should have expected, but there was still no excuse for what unfolded. From both sides. And the ref. Neither side could string 3 passes together and the only decent chance of the half saw a Darlo player miss from 2 yards, under no pressure having gone round the keeper. Players kept falling over, tackles missed the ball and the man, neither keeper made anything like a decent save. It was that bad.
The second half was a bit better, it could hardly have been worse, but was still pretty turgid. A 3-0 score line to Barnet was flattering and reflected only how utterly terrible Darlington are as opposed to anything like decent football from Barnet.
Darlington are doomed to relegation, that much clear. Barnet though are better than this, I've seen them this season a million times better and if they want to get anywhere near a play off spot this kind of shite has got to be consigned to history.
I couldn't really let my presence at this game go without comment, simply because it was so utterly awful.
I've been following Barnet through thick and thin (mostly thin) since 1992 and have also followed the lower division teams of where ever I happen to be living at the time. So I've seen an awful lot of crap football over the years. I know what crap football looks, sounds and yes, even smells like. And trust me, as crap games go, this was up there with the best. It was terrible, it really was.
Now I know the first half was played in horizontal drizzle so Brazil like following football may not have been what we should have expected, but there was still no excuse for what unfolded. From both sides. And the ref. Neither side could string 3 passes together and the only decent chance of the half saw a Darlo player miss from 2 yards, under no pressure having gone round the keeper. Players kept falling over, tackles missed the ball and the man, neither keeper made anything like a decent save. It was that bad.
The second half was a bit better, it could hardly have been worse, but was still pretty turgid. A 3-0 score line to Barnet was flattering and reflected only how utterly terrible Darlington are as opposed to anything like decent football from Barnet.
Darlington are doomed to relegation, that much clear. Barnet though are better than this, I've seen them this season a million times better and if they want to get anywhere near a play off spot this kind of shite has got to be consigned to history.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Busy Time!
Ooh.... been a few days hasn't it? Sorry fellow bloggers but it's been a rather busy few days since I posted on Wednesday night. Work was mental on Thursday and that was followed up with scouts which was the hardest work I have ever had with a group of scouts of any age. What the hell got into them I don't know but 2 kids ended up sitting out much of the evening and one got sent home. Thursday night of course meant the whole Question Time circus which I tried to ignore as much as I could but Mrs Akela wanted to watch it so it was impossible to completely miss. I consider it mostly to have been a pointless non event but that's just me.
Today meant football (more on that later) and dinner with my parents who confidently informed me that Dagenham council exercise positive discrimination for immigrants for social housing. A spot of questioning revealed that a bloke down the pub told them.
Sigh.
Anyhow I am back with a mostly free Sunday which as things stand will not be a hungover one and an extra hour in bed so you may see a bit more of me in the next 24-48 hours.
Ooh.... been a few days hasn't it? Sorry fellow bloggers but it's been a rather busy few days since I posted on Wednesday night. Work was mental on Thursday and that was followed up with scouts which was the hardest work I have ever had with a group of scouts of any age. What the hell got into them I don't know but 2 kids ended up sitting out much of the evening and one got sent home. Thursday night of course meant the whole Question Time circus which I tried to ignore as much as I could but Mrs Akela wanted to watch it so it was impossible to completely miss. I consider it mostly to have been a pointless non event but that's just me.
Today meant football (more on that later) and dinner with my parents who confidently informed me that Dagenham council exercise positive discrimination for immigrants for social housing. A spot of questioning revealed that a bloke down the pub told them.
Sigh.
Anyhow I am back with a mostly free Sunday which as things stand will not be a hungover one and an extra hour in bed so you may see a bit more of me in the next 24-48 hours.
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