Looking at life

The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly.
A book which makes some cry,
A book so beautiful,
As it is of spirit full,
Written by an eyelid,
Which did for freedom bid,
Saying ‘Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage.’
This book will with your heart engage,
And you to great places take.
By Jean-Dominique Bauby it was written,
And you will be by courage smitten.

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A truly great book.

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Do you believe in The Bible?

Do you believe in Revelations and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Read this book and you’ll that there is real truth in the ancient predictions of world terror and death.

Everyone thinks that a bioweapon will simply result in the deaths of millions of people but what they don’t realise is that those millions will die slow, lingering and excruciatingly painful deaths.

Reading like an exciting novel this autobiography was almost impossible to put down. Some paragraphs do contain a few long, medical words but despite this it is very accessible to anyone of reasonable intelligence.

However, this is a book about the ultimate terror and on the grounds that ignorance is bliss, I really don’t recommend that you read it unless you have a specific interest in bioweaponry.

(The deadly nature of the new super bugs and viruses developed in Russia mean that it is possible for a single bio attack to kill a billion or more people. The reason for this is that no one will know a bio attack has taken place until one or two weeks after the attack. Consequently, in our high-speed inter-related world, by the time anyone realises an attack has taken place those in the attack zone will have travelled the world, jostled their way through crowds, shaken hands with friends and business associates and also hugged and kissed their loved ones. Of course that number doesn't include those who went to the cinema, crowded round a roulette table or attended demonstrations, music festivals and other political rallies.)

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It’s the sicko lefties who are the fascists.

It’s the sicko lefties who are using violence to try and stifle free speech.

The BNP has never interfered with a sicko lefty parade or speech and so it seems to me that the BNP are more in favour of free speech than the sicko lefties are.

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There are six zeroes in a million,
Nine in a billion,
Twelve in a trillion,
And fifteen in a quadrillion.

But now it's time to decide,
That eighteen zeroes make a squillion.

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Globalisation has meant that the British have conceded to the Yanks and so British billions and trillions are now the same as American ones. (We have to let our Yankee friends win the odd battle, it's diplomacy.)

But, who is to decide what 18 zeroes are going to be called?

I vote for the squillion.

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What on earth do you expect city bankers to say?

It's just another blairism.

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If you enjoy military history this is an excellent book about the first major battle between the Americans and North Vietnamese Army.

At first I thought it was just a little long-winded but then realised that the author, Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, was making sure that every man who fought under his command at Ia Drang got his name mentioned.

A first class book. In fact this book is so good that I wouldn’t bother going to see the film as it would only spoil it. (it's generally always best to see the film before you read the book. If you read the book first it's usually best to forgo the film.)

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Despite the fact that a postal strike would be extremely inconvenient for me I have told my local post people that I fully support their industrial action.

If you want to live in a better country you have to be willing to make sacrifices and I feel that anyone who is against the privatisation of the Post Office should support the strikers.

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There is, unfortunately, a plethora of books on the terrorist threat and the average person is just far to busy to read them all and so, for an overview of the situation, it is important to find some books which are both solid and sensible.

To fill this gap I would not hesitate to recommend ‘The Next Attack’ by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon. However, I will say that by the time you reach the end of this book you will see that the whole situation is infinitely more complex than the media would have us believe.

A most informative read.

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The girl the old man,
After ran,
His heart did lech,
So he his arms did forward stretch,
But none were bold,
So none him told,
That he twenty was no more,
As that would cut him to the core,
And so the truth they stalled,
When him ‘a dirty old man’ they called.

But of course,
Every story has a source,
So if the old man the lottery could win,
He to his heart’s content could sin,
As many girls would his wrinkled face not see,
And he to them would just twenty be.

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Tony’s hand,
Did him in trouble land,
As one who in him saw a snake,
Refused to it shake,
And said that he would it not grip
Because it with blood did drip,
And that Tony the killer,
Was of war a swiller.

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Please, please,
I will you not tease,
But psychiatrists now need,
To do the world a decent deed,
Because Tony Blair,
Who for himself does only care,
Is confident,
He’ll be the EU president,
But it to everyone with memory is plain,
He is really quite insane,
So if three psychiatrists would him kindly certify,
This the fact in law would clarify,
And we him could then lock up,
So he would be in a padded room banged-up,
Then the world could cheer,
Knowing he his own fate did engineer.

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There was a time when I used to spend hours on ebay looking for the unusual things I like to buy but these days I hardly ever bother - everything has changed and the new procedures make it all just too much trouble to bother with.

A long, long time ago when I used to use Amazon I eventually got fed up with being advertised to death and stopped using the site. Now it’s the same with ebay - I feel I’m being advertised to death and so these days I need to have a serious need for something before I will bother.

More importantly,

I’ve just flatly refused to pay for an item I’ve bought in auction. It used to be that when you won an item and clicked the ‘pay-now’ button you were taken directly to paypal and you, the buyer, told paypal to pay the seller the required amount. But now things have changed and when I won this item and clicked the pay-now button, I was taken straight to the seller's checkout page where I was expected to enter MY paypal log-in details before payment could be completed.

Well excuse me!

I’m not putting ‘my’ paypal log-in details on someone else’s computer. Especially a site that has triggered a security warning on my computer when I went there.

Ebay, I suppose, was fun while it lasted but now the fraudsters are mushrooming and it will become harder and harder for users of the site to avoid being cheated. But even if ebay offers to refund any stolen monies, it’s all a lot of aggravation - an awful lot of aggravation.

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This post has been removed.
Because it was sympathetic to Gordon Brown
And his media trouble.
But then I remembered that New Labour
Had guaranteed us a referendum
On the EU treaty
And then with a bit of fancy footwork,
A treaty that was a treaty but wasn’t,
And a change of leadership,
The people of this country
Were denied the right to vote,
On the treaty.

It was treachery,
And Gordon Brown,
Proved himself to be,
Like tony blair,
Nothing but,
A treacherous,
Self-serving,
Rat.

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