Amnesty International UK, what hole have you been skulking in?

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "As the Beijing Olympics approaches, China will be increasingly sensitive to its reputation in other countries."

"Gordon Brown must make clear that Britain does not approve of its record on human rights."

"Basic values like justice and free speech are held dear by the British people and our prime minister must reflect their importance."

-BBC News

such such tripe. Kate, just repeating something over and over doesn't make it come true, even if you click your heels together. This laughable outburst underlines a fundamental discrepancy between what the British people hold dear and what we like to think we hold dear. These values that we supposedly "hold dear "are being systematically eroded day by day and Amnesty UK's constant and meaningless condemnation of other governments only serves to reinforce that long perpetuated myth; we are free and we are just. We have the most extensive and unregulated public surveillance in the world and anyone who steps out of line is immediately brought under suspicion not just by the police, but by other "free" citizens. It seems Amnesty is under the control of a government that wants us to remain ignorant of, or at least disaffected by the erosion of our civil liberties. ID cards anyone?

The Lamentable Tale of David Icke

David Icke, now this is a person who irritates me thoroughly. The scary thing is that his (what can only be described as) mumbo jumbo is starting to pull crowds and give him considerable recognition. The most ludicrous leap in logic imaginable, he starts harping on about an alien race of reptilian illuminati that exist beyond our perception, and people leap with him without questioning the rift! I mean for fuck's sake!
His defense of this position is what really grates. When people are rightly outraged by this concept of scaly ethereal overlords, Icke snaps back with an incredibly warped Hegelian dialectic - "you're stuck in a box mate!"- one can imagine him insisting. I wonder how he would respond to someone who immediately accepted this lunacy without equivocation, the shock would probably force him to admit he made it all up.
The thing is, there might well be realities or plains of existence beyond our narrow frequency of perception, but the question that immediately springs to mind is "Why fucking lizards? and how the fuck do you know that anyway?" If we can't perceive anything beyond the corporeal realm, surely that 'anything' is beyond our concern and certainly beyond the authority of David Icke to try and tell us it's full of reptiles. He goes on to suggest that the makers of "The Matrix" were remarkably close to the truth, so the only reason I can't put my hand through a wall is because I'm conditioned to believe that the wall is solid. Here's a question, how does that theory account for bumping into things accidentally? When someone came up behind me and twatted me around the head with a stick, i didn't know the stick was even there, never mind being under any delusions about its existential properties. It didn't pass through me nor I through it, it hit me, and it hurt, because it was a fucking stick and sticks are hard.
The point i'm trying to make is this; Why do people have to come to such outlandish conclusions about reptiles running shit and controlling our minds? Sure, the way the world is run doesn't make any sense, is inhumane and the official explanations of events provided for us insult our intelligence, but lizard people? Isn't corporate control and a system which values profit over human life a more viable culprit? hmm...

The U.S. election distraction.

Its difficult to know how much we should care about the US caucus race and forthcoming election. The Obama Clinton debate is rendered fairly pointless when one considers the emptiness of the position in question. There is an immovable capitalist framework already in place and the person who ends up sitting on top of it might as well be sitting on their thumb. There's no one who can get elected who will be able to do any good, so what we need in the oval office is an organism that can't do any harm. A pot plant maybe, or some lichen...
All the news channels will be encouraging us (through saturation more than anything else) to keep a close eye on the developments of the presidential fiasco and maybe even do some campaigning of our own. Frankly, I'd rather lick Hilary Clinton's balls.

(A Woman? Really?...Oh yes, she did say.)

4.7 TV's

BBC news have released a feature today that claims the average British home has 4.7 televisions and asks; does that make us sad? This astoundingly mundane revelation comes at a useful time; we're about to switch to digital. Everyone is being encouraged to start buying digital TV's and by 2012, if you wish to continue viewing the placatory mind-freeze that is mainstream media, you'll really have no choice in the matter. Of course, this is a very convenient boost to a flagging economy and yet another cynical attempt to force us to fill our lives with more consumerist rubbish, but digital TV is better though isn't it? ISN'T IT?
Actually, no. On the face of it, the technology is superior to analogue; better picture quality, sound and interactivity but the catch is achingly obvious to anyone who sees a pattern in how new technology is handled by a profit seeking world.
Digital output is compressed, leaving more space in the frequency spectrum, space that will inevitably and thoughtlessly be flogged off to the highest bidding companies for use with wireless mobile devices and other gizmos, causing interference on the TV frequencies. So the picture quality won't be better at all, it'll probably be worse, at times nigh on unwatchable, and that's before I even get started on the content...

The BBC feature is really about Oliver James's new book "The Selfish Capitalist" claiming in a very roundabout way that the rampant materialism of our society is probably not doing us any good. Um, yeah...
The real problem is James's characterization of the British economy and consumerist climate as "Selfish Capitalism". There isn't any other kind Oliver, there never will be.

Ooze Cruise

the full tom cruise scientology video is still up on www.gawker.com - it has to be seen to be believed. If we let them, these people will continue to fill the world with self-righteous arse dribble. Don't be scared by their vile litigation threats and warped rhetoric, free speech is free speech. Watch the video and help expose this deluded and sickening man, and by extension the scientologist cult - a raging pustule of an over-developed capitalist dystopia.