I have not updated my journal for 5 weeks, I am so bad!
All the major issues in one post!

Socialist Worker
I really like Hugo Chavez at the moment. A true Socialist leader who does try to help the poor. No leader is perfect but he is giving cheap Venezuelan oil to help the poorest people in New York, London and some other city that I cant remember! It shows we have no Socialist party in the UK really anymore and I love anyone who openly and publicly slags off George Bush.

The Pope
I dislike the man immensely and hate the fact he has an open platform to spread hate and conservative right wing views however all the furore over this speech was taken out of context. I cant be arsed to read the whole lecture he gave, but I hope that he gave some more examples of pro Muslim literature and writings. I am very scared though of the fact that you cannot criticise or say anything bad about Islam or Muslims. If I am allowed free speech then I am allowed to criticise without fear of death. A comment taken out of context is then used to cause rioting and violence and death threats. However much the Pope apologises I dont think this is going to end well for the Catholic church or the Pope against extremist fanatics.

The Stress of Living
When it was my birthday last May my parents brought me a gift voucher for a friend of the families Salon. She has opened a tiny one which is really really popular and is more about health and relaxation rather than beauty and does things like proper massages, acupuncture etc. I went for reflexology with the family friend and I have had it many times in the past but was very nervous and anxious about it, in this place and in a tiny room. I have only ever had it at home before that. It was really really relaxing and I have never been so relaxed! It made me realise that I don't do enough. I need to do nothing and relax more! Its a very great feeling that I have coped, an ecstatic feeling.

The Lesbian
Some friends of my parents have daughters who are the same age as me and my brother and apparetly they have a shocking secret. Actually they don't really and my mum just mentioned at the weekend just casually that their oldest daughter who is the same age as me has in my mothers exact words 'going through a lesbian phase and moved in with a lady'. Strangely my parents are not homophobic at all, although they don't know about me. I feel really proud for their daughter and wanna find out her email address now to send her a email! 'congratulations you are a lesbian!' lol

The Girlfriend
After my last post 5 weeks ago (here) where I was upset that my brother and his girlfriend had split up. I had no reason to get upset, they like split up and then were seeing each other again. They are like so volatile and keep getting back together and then splitting and then getting back together. But I am glad that its not like really over and she is in floods of tears etc. They have rows and then they are fine! Relationships are so complex and after a fight they don't want to get back together as a 'relationship' because its 'too soon' yet spend all their time together and if they are 'separate' surely they can see other people, yet there is probably no way that would happen. Anyway she said she would keep in touch with me whatever happened!

The Darkness
I can't believe it gets dark so early in the evening now! It feels so autumny and winter now! Its nearly the end of September now! I want Summer back!

Tags: beliefs, family, gay, politics, world
Current Mood: contemplative

• I am being forced to update by text message threats! Its outrageous I tell you! But it does work! I shall blackmail my friends I want to update, to update! muhahahaha! Its strange that the people who joined lj at about the same time as me, have mostly stopped posting so much. I have noticed a sort of 'internet fatigue' going on with my internet friends who I have known for years and I am part of that. Its like they (and me) cannot be bothered to update their journals or update or change their websites. Its like there is millions of static personal blogs/journals and home pages. I wonder if people are just overwhelmed by the net and information. I don't really set out anymore to chat online or make new friends. I like talking to new people but don't go and chat all the time. But there is massive numbers of people who still have a online presence but are not really as active online as they were. Maybe there is more important things in their lives? I just forget to update my lj! or run out of time. I get so sad when a friend deletes their journal or website, especially when its been around for years! I just hope they keep in touch with me :)



• My parents are currently away for two weeks in Mauritius and return on Friday. My brother, his lovely Girlfriend and I have had fun and were drunk all weekend! We keep having drunken late night discussions on major issues like legalising all drugs, the state of the world and we have in depth discussions on Big Brother lol. Its been fun, but will be glad to have them back. I am so exhausted!



• George Galloway was on Sky News this morning and totally destroyed the host. You can see the interview on youtube right here. He supports Hezbollah which I don't but I love the bits about Sky News and the Murdoch Israeli bias. Why cant someone do that on Fox News! I can never decide if I love him or hate him. I don't agree with all his views but he is passionate and gives a left wing different view to almost every issue. I like to have those sort of people in the world, even if I don't agree with him. I want both sides of the issue. But sometimes he is also annoying. I do think its better to have politicians who say their views rather than just toe the line. Although his argumentative style is a bullying but says what he thinks and often has the evidence and the researched facts to back it up.



• My brother had his car broken in two weeks ago. They smashed a small window. He has an old car which has no central locking and no alarm. He has a lead in his car which goes from his cd/radio that he plugs his mp3 player in. He left the lead out there and I think the car was broken in to, to look for anything valuable, which there is nothing of value he ever leaves in the car. They pulled the car stereo out but did not take it. So the damage was a broken small triangular window and they stole the aux audio lead and a pair of headphones and so he lost a total of about £8! lol We phoned the police (our local police station has closed down! The police station that handled the crime was a good 45mins away from us by car!). They said that they would ring when someone could come out to the car. The next day a different police station phoned up and did the investigation over the phone and just gave a crime number! My parents heard about this on holiday by text and were outraged which I am as well really because there was no presence by the police in our crime. How does that look for the local community and for local PR? People already have some negative opinions about the police, doing crime investigation over the phone hardly helps! I wanted finger printing dammit! So the question is, what crimes do they come out for now? Do they do burglary's over the phone, do you have to have multiple murders before they come out? Gareth got his crime reference number anyway and claimed the insurance to fix the window.



• I had crime of my own! Some cunt committed fraud on my credit card! The card never left the house or was stolen or lost. Some people/ crims have machines which generate random numbers. They try to make purchases on cards until they are successful. All you need for a credit card purchase to go through online is the card number which is 16 digits and the expiry date which is like xx /xx. I saw a transaction on my account online for a company called Lyra Telecom for like £5. I was really sure I never have used them which are a calling card type telecom company. I pay for a voip number from a company and texts online from another company but they were not this telecom company. I phoned and complained and it was put through to the fraud department. They refunded me the money. The next day someone from my credit card company phoned and they had been bombarded by loads of online transactions to my card. But they didn't seem to know the expiry date that worked, so they used my card number and sent to loads of expiry dates in the next 2 years. Some of them had gone on my card for like £700 which I did not have available on my card anyway! lol The credit card company were really good and the card was suspended and I had to get a new card and number and pin and online account argh! I was refunded all of the money taken and any interest. Its a bitch though to update all my online accounts and Amazon and stuff! argh! I looked at my account online and another fraudulent transaction was 2 online bookings for cinema tickets on consecutive days. It is scary to think that you don't even have to use your card ever and someone could randomly generate your number! I have thought for a long time that the credit card system is not as safe as it seems, because its not that hard to find numbers that match. It reminds me of research from a university a few years ago that 4 digit pin numbers are not as hard to guess as thought. It was supposed to be like 1 in billions chance of working out someones pin in a certain number of goes. But this published research proved that it does not take as many times to get a pin as thought! The probability was far less, but still thousands to one chance. I swear people are committing fraud against you at any turn, using your identity, credit cards, bank account, everything! Then again I don't agree with biometric identity cards and passports. You could pay loads for security with finger prints, retina scans and penis size scanning but already the proposed very expensive UK Biometric Passport scheme has hit a problem. Its already been hacked!

Tags: crime, england, politics
Current Mood: chipper

I shall do another post later on! *gasp* (that's to everyone, not just the Brits).

After the news today that the National Health Service is £512 million now in deficit (news story) - if you go to the BBC News homepage you can enter your post code and it will tell you about the NHS financial state of affairs in your area. Its also at here if they move the postcode search off the front page.

My local NHS financial info is here and I was shocked to find that in my local area, we are in surplus (e.g. in the green)! I was sure my area was massively in debt!

I do wonder if there is a point where you keep throwing money at something and its all being eaten up by bureaucracy! Why is no money trickling down to the places that need it!

That is my political health post of the week lol

Tags: health, politics, uk
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Scissor Sisters - ELECTROBIX

Now Italy is thinking about pulling over of the Iraq war and moving all its troops out (story here) and many other European countries have already done the same thing. In Spain the people were so annoyed about it they voted in a new government on the premise they would leave Iraq after the Madrid bombs. I wonder will there be anyone left with the UK supporting America! Several countries have very low popularity for the war now and support for their own governments. I just think its a shame we kept out current government and not ditched it on this one major issue like other places. But then I think we have no real opposition or alternative choices really. Blair is awful on the Iraq issue and did lie, but the rest of his policies and polities was not so bad (at the time, I think he is really really dated now as a leader).

But I am really undecided on the issue of pulling out (think of hilarious rhythm method jokes here). I am against the whole war and how we went into it. But we have now really messed up and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq. Leaving is the easy choice, but trying to get the country back and an infrastructure going is far more of a challenge. If we cause all that, should we correct that? But on the other hand I think Iraq is about to collapse into a civil war or maybe it even already has, should we lose more people because of it? I think its best to look at how many troops are dying per day. So I don't know if we should leave or not, but I do applaud Italy and Spain and France and all the other countries who either never wanted to support America on this or are not separating ourselves! I bet you though, that we are the last country still supporting America on this issue when the whole world has decided to remove themselves from the coalition and I don't think that is a heroic thing for us in anyway, I think its a moronic thing!

Tags: iraq, italy, politics, world
Current Mood: apathetic
Current Music: Basement Jaxx - Broken Dreams (Los Amigos Invisibles Mix)

I am theming this post! It will all link together I tell you!

o the one with the fantastic quotes but possibly one of the worlds worst politicians Donald Rumsfield has been attacked for being crap. (news story). Bush has spoken out and supported him and given him his "full support". I have a rule of thumb and that is, in any government in the world if the leader gives someone their full support amid scandal of some form, they always have about max 6 months left in that job! Try it out in your own home, it always works! Support by the head is always the death nail in the coffin! The only exception to this rule (or maybe more of a personal theory of mine) is Ruth Kelly who is still in there after scandal and support from Blair! I guess 6 months after the event is not up yet so she is not a proven exception yet! I partially like in this story the fact that Bush described him as "energetic and steady" when talking about his leadership! (one of my fave ever news clips is when Donald is abroad in a military base doing a talk and a soldier/marine type person asks a really difficult question about why they have no right equipment there! brilliant! Its almost as good as the housewife arguing with Margaret Thatcher live on tv by phone in the 80's!

o apparently everyone hates America (in the UK) (news story). An American women who lives in the UK is complaining about the fact there is so much racism and anti-American feeling (that she has experienced) in the UK. She says she gets abuse and taunts when people hear her accent and is criticised for supporting Bush as president and the war. The lady did not support the war or Bush or vote for him. I cannot support hatred for anyone! You can't judge someone for an entire country! Even if someone voted for Bush and has totally different beliefs to you, you cannot hold that against them and persecute them! If you are against America and the war so much than more people should have voted against Tony Blair to get him removed from power. That is not as easy as it sounds because there was not that much choice really in the last general election, but if you feel strongly about it there should have been more protest votes. I think there is a lot of anti war feeling and anti American feeling. Whilst I cannot condone abuse to anyone (and if people keep being nasty to American's we will lose tourism from there! although after 9/11 we have not that many American tourists anyway) and I don't think you can scapegoat one American you meet, no mater if they agree with you or not! But I do think that America now has a huge image problem, with citizens getting abuse around the world and the political leaders cannot travel anyway without protests and marches against them and that is of their own doing! Their policies have made them unpopular but don't blame individual people for it! I like the BBC News 'have your say' sections and there is some good comments from both sides on that page.

o everyone hates Raymond - actually I hate Raymond I can't stand that show and I can't get into everybody hates Chris! I may have posted this bit to continue the theme of the post ;)

Tags: american culture, fucked up people, ignorance, politics, uk, world
Current Mood: contemplative

Christmas is starting to drive me insane! Hope you are ready for Christmas if you celebrate it?

Last night on the BBC News at 10' o clock there was an article about the US / Mexican border and immigration. But they had the most wonderful ever footage of rednecks talking about it! First of all they went in a helicopter patrolling the border and they found some immigrants running and the pilot was asked some questions and he said they were terrorists invading his country. wtf? The guy really needs to look up "terrorist" in the dictionary. I don't believe that the Mexicans are bombing or attacking or making a political point about an issue. Another police guy talked to was going on and on about how his grandma is hassled when she goes through airports and has her bag searched and yet the immigrants don't get searched or have their bags searched! That just seems like sour grapes!

They had these "unofficial" guys who are retired who patrol places at night and are all armed!

Mexican migrants do all the crappy low paid jobs that Americans don't want to do. I honestly don't believe that a huge wall is going to put up in an Israel type way. American needs some of those Mexican migrants and also needs the Mexican govt on their side as they have helped them with finding criminals and various people crossing the line in the past!

Someone else wrote this about the article on the news, from a newsgroup..

there was an item on the News tonight showing US attempts to stop migrants crossing the border from Mexico in to the U.S.A. .Matt Frei was in a Blackhawk helicopter and they were searching for "walkers" as they described them . ... The word "terrorist" got mentioned .I cant remember the exact words used but the pilot seemed to suggest that they were terrorists and Matt Frei questioned what he had said and the reply was " Well,they terrorise me " ....FFS .What a load of shit ...

from this newsgroup posting here

The actual news story it was about is here although does not have any video or any of the interviews with the white trash

Everyday I read something or see something else about America which just makes me sigh! I don't think its every going to change, and it has the worst international image anyway, except maybe apart from like North Korea. They have managed to piss off people in most countries all around the world. I considered this year boycotting anything American. Due to the environmental and international policies e.g, pollution, and support of Israel. I don't think I could give up American tv though! I mean most electronics etc is all made in Asian with American brand names, but I wonder could the future hold people boycotting? American needs the international trade, especially as the dollar is sinking! I honestly don't think the future is bright for the USA whoever is in power and that is going to affect any country who is associated with America too :(

The people who are not religious and / or right wing extremists, or part of a political lobby or can read are lovely, that I have known or met online! Yet people seem to be in a brain washed cloud, where when people leave the States, they suddenly have realisations, yet why cant people see it there? we are supposed to be giving the American way of democracy to Iraq? I don't think we will ever pull out!

Sorry this post is not very humorous or optimistic :(

Tags: american culture, politics, world
Current Music: Janet Jackson - The Pleasure Priniciple Long Vocal Remix [The Shep Pettibone Mix]