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Goodbye!

Posted by Greg England on Tuesday, July 07, 2009 5:28:46 PM
I have decided to call it a day with my blog.
I now have other interests, including my wonderful girlfriend, and an electric guitar that badly needs practising.
 
It has been fun, and I have enjoyed debating with you all.
 
Thanks,
 
Greg
 
PS: No final blog posting is complete without a link to XKCD:
 
 
(Note - some of the humour on XKCD is rather "edgy" in a Curb Your Enthusiasm manner.  You have been warned ...)
 
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Peace and love

Posted by Greg England on Monday, April 20, 2009 3:35:24 PM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8008602.stm
Morrissey walked off stage during his set at the Coachella festival in California on Friday after declaring he could "smell burning flesh".  According to festival goers who reported his comments on internet forums, the committed vegetarian added: "And I hope to God it's human."

Here are some facts of life, Morrissey.
The food chain exists PRIOR to human involvement.  Even if every human being on this earth were to adopt a Buddhist way of life, and give up eating meat, the rest of the animal kingdom would continue to be omnivorous.  It is therefore absurd for someone to adopt a 'holier than thou' stance on this issue by using the pejorative phrase "smell burning flesh".
 
But it gets worse.  Assume that Morrissey really did say "I hope to God it's human"
If humans are superior to animals, then we are all perfectly entitled to live according to the principle that "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." Genesis 9:3

If human beings are equal to animals, then it's absurd to get on your high horse about meat eating, AND THEN wish for the death of a human being for food (a fellow animal?).

The only way Morrissey's statement makes sense is if he believes that human beings are inferior to animals.  
But the last time a vegetarian artist implemented such a belief politically ...
I wish I could play guitar like Johnny Marr.
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A word to the wise

Posted by Greg England on Thursday, March 05, 2009 5:27:29 PM
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Across the pond

Posted by Greg England on Sunday, February 15, 2009 5:16:47 PM
Photobucket
 
I have just returned back to Blighty from a holiday in the States.
In the continuing interests of anonymity, I am not going to publish my full itinery.  However, the astute amongst you will probably have figured out that I am not pictured in this photo ...

During my holiday I spoke to lots of people, and whenever the topic of politics came up I kept tally. 
 
As best as I can judge, I met:

- Three Democrats (one of them serving in the US forces: great bloke and very objective)
- Two Liberals
- One Conservative (well, someone who admitted to listening to Limbaugh anyway).

I didn't spend my entire holiday listening to the blues, or in a single location or US state.
However, it was quite an eye opener to meet so many Liberals and so few Conservatives.
 
I will post again when I have figured out what this all means.

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All in good fun

Posted by Greg England on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 6:58:41 PM
I have discovered a website called www.says-it.com which helps you to do this: 
  
Photobucket 
Photobucket
  
Photobucket
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BBC Bias? Surely not!

Posted by Greg England on Monday, January 05, 2009 4:07:48 PM

I was channel hopping this evening, and I discovered this TV listing for BBC4: 

BBC Bias 1
 
BBC Bias 2
 
(By the way, that's not a reflection on the TV screen ... that's the TV programme showing through the text)
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The right to arm bears

Posted by Greg England on Saturday, December 27, 2008 6:50:51 PM
If you have ever spent Christmas in the UK, you will be aware of the Queen's speech.

On Christmas Day, at 3pm each year, she delivers her message to the nation:
http://uk.youtube.com/theroyalchannel

A more permanent link to her speech is here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4iHGmVd82Aw

In recent years, there have been "alternative" Christmas messages, spearheaded by Channel 4.

This year's offering was from the President of Iran to the British people:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alternative-christmas-message
 
And you can read the transcript here:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alternative-christmas-message/articles/translation-of-the-alternative-christmas-message

Where would we all be without all this cutting edge, brave, investigative jounalism from the drive-bys?
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Response to AI

Posted by Greg England on Saturday, November 08, 2008 7:13:55 PM
A fellow Townhaller, calling themselves AI, has thrown down the gauntlet:
"Guys like Greg England, should be writing about best practices in governing at different levels instead of wasting spewing drivel and posturing."
 
I would not normally presume to tell US conservatives how to govern. 
And due to the fact that it's getting late(it's now 00:18 GMT) I shall be brief.
 
In the coming months, if Obama turns out to be an unreconstructed socialist after all, then maybe you guys in the USA could do with a UK perspective.  After all, us Brits have plenty of experience of socialism:
 
British Airways
British Aerospace
British Gas
British Steel
British Oxygen
British Telecom
British Rail
British Leyland
British Petroleum
 
Not to mention entities such as the National Health Service.
 
So, if I had to rebuild a US conservative movement from the grassroots I would start with the following:
 
(1) The US Consitution
 
(2) The Road to Serfdom by Hayek (here's a link to an unauthorised abridged version)
 
(3) The 1979 Conservative Party Manifesto
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/displaydocument.asp?docid=110858
 
Conservatism at its best is pragmatic, but it must have a consistent ideological core, based on the three legs of: 
  • Social conservatism,
  • Fiscal conservatism
  • Foreign policy conservatism.
Experiments in compassionate conservatism (George Bush), environmental conservatism (i.e. the Dave Cameron experiment), bipartisan conservatism (John McCain) are all ultimately doomed to failure, because they all attempt to apologise for conservatism.  I'm not even sure I understand what neoconservatism is (although I agree with Dennis Prager about the non-existence of the Bush doctrine).
 
It's not necessary to merge conservatism with liberalism.  Liberals will do that for you in government.
 
From UK history:
Margaret Thatcher was one of our most revolutionary leaders of recent times and even she didn't privatise the NHS. 
By the way, the NHS is one of the largest organisations on the planet, with an annual budget of £100 billion, and rising as a percentage of GDP.
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Demagogues of the world unite

Posted by Greg England on Saturday, November 08, 2008 5:22:20 PM
Congratulations to President Barack Obama for winning the election.
However, it's not all down to his oratorial skills. Ever since 2000, the media has been busy constructing a liberal narrative to demonise George W.Bush.  The mythology began with the tale of the stolen election. (And if you can persuade me that 266 is greater than 271, then yes I can be persuaded that the election was stolen).

For a brief moment after 911, liberals called a ceasefire. Well, apart from Russell Brand who was fired from MTV after dressing as Osama bin Laden on 12th September 2001. That's what liberals call irony.

The narrative then continued, stating that George W.Bush lied about the 911 attacks, he lied about WMD to help his pals in Haliburton, and he rejected the Kyoto protocol in order to cause a massive hurricane to destroy New Orleans. (The Democrat failures at the state level were his fault as well).

I once joked about Bush being responsible for Russia invading Georgia, but it turns out that this is now part of the liberal narrative (something to do with NATO). Fannie and Freddie ... there's a tricky one. However, the liberal revisionists have replaced the scandal with the slogan "Main Street, not Wall Street".

According to liberals, George W.Bush has started illegal wars, destroyed the economy, and is trying to destroy the world through pollution.

Given this narrative, when a "clean and articulate" black guy teamed up with Joe Biden, to oppose an old man and a "religious nut" then of course the Democrats won.  (Although, it was touch and go for a while until the electorate also be convinced that John McCain and George W.Bush were in fact the same person.  That required some serious reprogramming).

But don't despair, the novelty will soon wear off.
Iraq and Afghanistan will turn out to be real world issues after all, with a life of their own beyond the GOP.  The world economy will continue to remain untamable, and free-market forces will continue to assert themselves.  And whilst the world (or "planet", for any of you liberals reading) may heat up a little, I doubt that we shall all drown.

So in the final analysis, it will be events that test Obama's worth.  I pray that he steps up to the plate, and I also pray that the US conservative movement has a short grieving period, brushes itself down and starts afresh.

We can't let liberals grind us down.
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Can Condi win this election?

Posted by Greg England on Monday, November 03, 2008 7:15:35 PM
After 12 years of Obama it's time for a change.
(Article by Greg England, 1st October 2020)

President Obama has brought the US into conflict with Iran, Sudan and Sweden.  President Obama has mishandled the fuel crisis, the water crisis and the honey bee crisis.  The Russian President Maria Yuryevna Sharapova still maintains that the US deliberately steered that asteroid into Russian territory, in spite of evidence provided by Al Jazeera to the contrary.

In other news, scientists are still investigating claims that wind farms are harming livestock.  Apparently, the magnetic fields surrounding the generators are strong enough to interfere with their brains and cause behavioural problems.  The problem appears to be most pronounced with cloned livestock.
 
The discovery of a new method for disposing nuclear waste into space has forced team Obama to re-examine the possiblity of restarting the US nuclear industry, although it's becoming increasingly difficult to find science undergraduates who aren't lured by a career in the United Health Service.

English prime minister Lembit Opik visited the UN today, to request an additional 20,000 troops to support peace keeping operations in the Republic of Scotland.  A spokesman from the New Jacobite Army demanded that Scotland be returned to the status of a Kingdom, with Francis II of the House of Wittelsbach as the monarch.

But in spite of all this upheaval, the question that is really on everyone's lips:
 
Given the enduring controversies surrounding President Michelle Obama ...
... are Americans too sexist to vote for another female President?
 
How do the British drive-bys get away with this relentless mantra:
  • Is the US too racist to vote for a black man?
It's an absurd question.  Given that Republicans are likely to vote for the ... erm ... Republican candidate, the internal logic of the question becomes:
  • Are US Democrats and Independents too racist to vote for a black man?
Which of course they are not.  The degree of enthusiasm that the Obama campaign has engendered is proof of that.  If anything, it appears as if there are too many Democrats and Independents that are willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt just because he is black.
 
I appreciate that this argument is not exactly new.
 
It just annoys me the way the media get away with this double-think, which also contains an anti-US message.
 
If Condoleezza Rice was the Republican nominee, would we be calling Democrats racist for not voting for her?
A man or woman should be judged by the "content of his character" and not the "colour of his skin".
 
I sincerely hope that if Obama wins the election, it will be because a majority of Americans (for better or for worse) decided to put their faith in his political project, and not for racial reasons ... either way.

PS:  I guess Democrats are just too ageist to vote for the old guy.
 
 
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Knights and Knaves

Posted by Greg England on Sunday, November 02, 2008 9:21:41 AM
Given the importance of the US election process, I guess few of you have had the time to follow the latest scandal in the UK.

It relates to a series of rather nasty prank phone calls made by UK celebrities Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross to an elderly celebrity: (warning, strong language and offensive material follows)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7694989.stm

It's not necessary for you to read the transcript of the phone calls, only to understand that the BBC have taken this incident very seriously:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2008/russell_brand_show.html

Some news sources record the latest number of complaints over this incident at around 40,000:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/01/2407587.htm?section=entertainment

Now, without reading any other information sources (no cheating please)

Can you guess what Russell Brand's political affiliation is?


Before I am accused of engaging in the logic of guilt by association, I wish to put the following disclaimers on record:

(a) If a knave supports a political movement, it doesn't necessarily follow that all members of that political movement are knaves.
(b) If a knave supports a political figure, it doesn't mean that the political figure is a knave.
(c) No political movements are entirely composed of virtuous people.
(d) Knaves may be associated with both sides of the political spectrum.

Nevertheless it's a compelling thought experiment isn't it?
You just know what Russell Brand's political affiliation is going to be, without me telling you.

In the unlikely event that you haven't worked it out, try viewing this page:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2704186/Russell-Brand-upsets-MTV-audience-with-sex-and-politics.html


I personally have a soft spot for Jonathan Ross, and hope he has learned his lesson.

It would be a shame if he has destroyed his career:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3331849/Jonathan-Ross-may-not-return-to-the-BBC-claims-Terry-Wogan.html

But that's what happens when you offend thousands of people.
Okay I admit it ... I'm jealous!
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If you wait long enough, liberals are wrong about everything

Posted by Greg England on Saturday, October 25, 2008 4:03:27 PM
In September 2007, I stated that I was skeptical about the official crime figures, and that violent crime in the UK was much more of a problem than was being officially reported:

http://gregengland.blogtownhall.com/2007/09/01/crime_and_punishment.thtml

I even responded to criticisms from my peers, who thought I was exaggerating the problem:
http://gregengland.blogtownhall.com/2007/09/07/crime_and_punishment_-_part_2.thtml

How could Greg England be ranting about increases in violent crime, when the official statistics were showing a decrease?
Well, at last the truth has come out:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/24/ukcrime-police
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7685908.stm

The BBC says:

"A number of police forces in England and Wales have been undercounting some of the most serious violent crimes, the government has admitted.

It means figures for serious violent crimes rose by 22% compared to last year - rather than showing a fall as previous figures appeared to indicate.

The mistake happened when some crimes classed as "grievous bodily harm with intent" were recorded as less serious.  Figures say overall crime is down, and ministers say these can be trusted.

The government says it does not know how long the undercounting has been going on - leading to concerns that figures on violent crime may have been wrong for up to a decade."

Greg England does victory dance

PS:  I also predicted that recession would occur in the UK as far back as early 2006.  My basic complaints were rapid house price inflation, and a culture of easy credit.  I have the evidence to prove this.  However, due to strict requirements of anonymity I am wary of publishing anything on this blog that would identify me.  So you'll just have to take my word on that.

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Moonbat wisdom

Posted by Greg England on Saturday, October 25, 2008 3:37:09 PM
The environment
All animals have rights
Unborn human beings do not have rights.

The environment would be better off without people.
It would be an environmental disaster if the polar bear became extinct.

When Margaret Thatcher closed down the coal mines, it was an act of class warfare.
When environmentalists try to close down coal fired power stations, it's an act of heroism.

Society
 Marriage is an outdated institution for straight people.
Marriage is an absolute human right for gay people.

Religion
 Fundamentalist Christians are dangerous.
If an act of violence is performed in the name of Islam, it is an insult to Islam.

 All religious impulses are imaginary, and religion is a mental illness.
Consciousness is an emergent property of matter, and the self does not exist.

 Good and evil do not exist.
Religious conservatives are bad people.

Economics
 Life evolved from inanimate matter.
The economy must be intelligently designed.

 Increases in industrial productivity are an exploitation of the worker.
Increases in energy efficiency are an environmental virtue.

 When retail prices increase, it's because companies are exploiting the consumer.
When retail prices decrease, it's because companies are exploiting the worker.

Foreign policy
 Trading with a nasty regime is unethical because it's only about profits.
Imposing economic sanctions on a nasty regime is unethical because it hurts the poor.

 Making peace with a nasty regime is hypocrisy.
Making war with a nasty regime proves that conservatives are warmongers.

 In the 20th Century, tens of millions died at the hands of national socialists and soviet socialists,
It is an act of political indecency to make any semantic connections.

 Bill Ayers is irrelevant.
George Bush is a fascist.
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Trick or treat

Posted by Greg England on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:14:36 PM
I was shopping in Tescos supermarket recently, and I stumbled across the following image:
Mouth with blood oozing from it
 
It's the magazine cover from the British environmentalist magazine "The Ecologist"
http://www.theecologist.org/
 
The magazine describes the accompanying article as follows: 
Special report:
Eco villain or victim of spin? Livestock production takes a heavy toll on the planet, but as Simon Fairlie and Richard Young find, giving up meat may not be the most sustainable way to live. 
I'm sure the magazine editors thought that they were being particularly witty with this image.  They were merely trying to provoke debate.  Given the tone of the description they are probably giving meat eating a fair hearing.  And anyway, where did you think meat comes from? 
 
I can only speculate as to their reasons for putting this image on the front cover.

But it doesn't matter what liberal reasons they give.
Because for the next month across the UK, there will be magazine stands featuring images of a pouting human mouth with blood coming out of it.  The deed is done.  The cause has been served.  And the tragic fact is that the publishers, and the editors, and the writers, are blissfully unaware ....
 
PS:  I defend my reproduction of this image under the principle of fair use.
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Eat drink and be merry ....

Posted by Greg England on Thursday, September 25, 2008 7:55:41 PM
Bill Maher has made a movie that mocks religious faith, in a "shooting fish in a barrel" way that makes liberals feel smug, whilst providing little illumination:
 
Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury has come out in defence of Christ.
 
Of course he hasn't, he is too busy praising Marx, Dawkins and Hitchens:
 
And I quote:
"Marx long ago observed the way in which unbridled capitalism became a kind of mythology, ascribing reality, power and agency to things that had no life in themselves; he was right about that, if about little else ........ The mythologies and abstractions, the pseudo-objects of much modern financial culture, are in urgent need of their own Dawkins or Hitchens."
 
Well, here's my reply for the Archbishop of Canterbury:
"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."  Friedrich Nietzsche.
  

PS:  If you have never heard of Nietzsche then I don't recommend him.  He is a seriously nihilistic philosopher ...
... (his collected works were a gift from Hitler to Mussolini for his sixtieth birthday!)

Nevertheless, it's these thinkers who have shaped the modern world (like Marx) so it's important to at least be aware that they exist.  And the internet is full of liberals who are busy rewriting history and apologising for Nietzsche (poor, poor misunderstood Nietzsche ... ah, didums).

So, if you are still curious, then I highly recommend this Catholic analysis:
 
Unlike a liberal analysis, this article pulls no punches and tells it how it really is.
 
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