We Are All Together

I know it’s been a while but I’ve been busy with a show I used to watch but haven’t seen in years. I started from the very beginning almost 3 weeks ago and I’m up to Season 17 now. Not bad considering there are between 22-24 episodes of 45 minutes each in each series. The show is Criminal Minds and shows the workings of the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit. To some this may not be their cup of coffee, but I enjoy the interactions of the characters and especially Dr Spencer Reid. He is on the autism spectrum and has such a quick mind it is amazing how well Matthew Gray Gubler plays this character. Of course Dr Reid has been missing from Season 16 and there is no news as to whether he will be returning in 2023 for Season 17.

I am also watching some other shows I missed first time around: Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale and The IT Crowd. I tried watching The Mighty Boosch with Noel Fielding but was unable to get into the mindset of the characters.

There are places I remember

Today (October 9) would have been the 82nd birthday of a little known Englishman who was born to the sound of explosions in Liverpool, and died 42 years ago to the sound of gunfire at the hands of a madman who didn’t understand what he meant. I hope John Lennon is at peace because we need him more today than we did before. I hope Mark Chapman rots in prison for the rest of his miserable life because he was an unknown nobody before he shot and killed John Lennon and he is now infamous for that one act.

I followed the Beatles and got what John was saying about the youth of the 1960’s in Britain. We cared more for rock stars than religion and it was just a question of which would die out first, both are still around today but there are more people going to concerts, buying records and cd’s than attend a church. John was talking to a friend in England about the way he perceived society in England. Of course he mentioned the Beatles because that was his group, he never made any comment about the USA (since the Beatles had agreed (unanimously) to refuse to play live in a segregated venue). They helped the Civil Rights movement in the USA to come to the foreground on the worlds stage, and by association the Apartheid system in South Africa was also laid out for all to see.

The Beatles changed the face of popular culture in the sixties and were at the forefront of the youth counter culture throughout the decade. They were, and still are, the most influential of all the sixties British Groups. If you doubt that just have a look at the viewing figures for the Disney + mini-series Get Back. They are still selling albums today, even though their last album was released in 1970, being the second last one they recorded. George Harrison became a great songwriter because he was competing with two of the best that had ever worked together, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Before you start saying that they hardly ever worked together towards the end of the group, they still influenced each other, Paul McCartney is a better songwriter today because of John Lennon than he might have been had they never worked together.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave songs away to other groups (including the Rolling Stones first ever number one single) not just from Liverpool or even England. The message they sent out more than any other was a simple one, Love is all you need. I hope that Macca is around for a long time to come but, even if he isn’t, he will be remembered as long as there are musicians copying and being influenced by the greatest Rock band of all time.

While a nation mourns

No doubt everyone has heard by now that Queen Elizabeth II is dead and the UK is in mourning. I am sorry that she has died without naming William as her heir because with King Charles III we will also have Queen Camilla, the woman who split Charles and Diana Wales up. She is a marriage wrecker which ultimately led to the car chase in Paris which killed Princess Diana. In my opinion it is now time to do away with the antiquated Royal Family, the outdated Imperial Honours System and the House of Lords. Adopting instead the American system of a President, two elected houses and an end to Lords, Ladies, Dames, Knights and Royalty. Andrew should go to the USA to answer questions about his involvement with Epstein and, if found guilty of any crimes against children (the presumption is his innocence until proven BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT) he should pay the price for his crimes.

I have never been a staunch Royalist, I always felt that they achieved their greatness throughout history by killing more people, stealing more wealth and being capable of getting away with it through the size and skill of their armies. Recent events have shown that the current system of a Monarch works well as long as they have no power to rule. The time has come to end the sham and remove them from the pretence of power. If this is done with bloodshed then it is a wasted opportunity, Revolutions have been carried out in the past where the populace rose up against the oppressive monarchs of the day and, with an awful lot of blood shed removed any vestige of them from the country. We are more civilised today and the revolution can be carried out peacefully with the will of the people.

After all, peaceful protest against a regime leaves them unsure how to handle the protesters. As soon as you become violent then they will start smashing skulls and killing people, this is why they will get people to infiltrate the crowds and begin to protest with violence. That way they try to whip up the mob and then they know how to deal with them. Peaceful protest is the only way to achieve change and make the Establishment quake in their boots.

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left

To lose. (Me and Bobby McGee, Kris Kristofferson (composer).

Well, checking my email this morning brought to my attention that I am now divorced from my 4th (Narcissistic) wife. Once again single and available for dating, I wonder what the pandemic has changed about dating, I really don’t want to be alone forever but without knowing how the post-pandemic landscape has changed it is a very worrying time. When the AIDS pandemic hit in the 1980’s I was in a relationship and looking forward to my second marriage. I was also at college and didn’t give a second thought to what it could mean to me, especially as Paul Michael Glaser was having unprotected sex with his wife who had contracted AIDS from being given infected blood. He never contracted the disease meaning I didn’t have to worry whether my wife to be was being faithful or not.

Having had covid twice, and having long covid now so it takes me longer to walk anywhere, I really don’t know enough about my condition to know whether or not I can pass long covid onto others. No one seems to be able to tell me either, whether or not being tested as negative but having symptoms means I’m not contagious or I’m highly contagious. Please, if anyone reads this and knows for definite the meaning let me know in the comments.

People are strange when you’re a stranger

I’ve been MIA for the duration of the pandemic and for that I am truly sorry. A lot has happened since 2020 in my life and not all of it was for the best. Hence the reason why I’ve been taking time for myself and getting my life sorted before posting on here again. No doubt some of those who were following me will have left, some because they were missing my posts and others because they thought I’d gone for good.

I would like to say that, since I was last here, I have become single, applied for a divorce and the decree absolute should be granted soon. I am now free from the Narcissist I spent 21 years of my life with and I am gradually beginning to get back into the swing of things. I am not going to say everything has been a bed of roses because, last year, I caught Covid twice. The first time was while waiting for my dad’s funeral and to see if I could go, because I contracted covid I was unable to go. The second time was in January of this year and my breathing is still laboured and painful so, yes, long covid is a thing and it is worse than the disease.

I wish I could tell you that I was heartbroken when my dad died, but I hadn’t seen him since 2019, going up to Scotland to pay him a visit proved an impossibility because of the lock down restrictions in place in late summer 2020. By that time he was in a care home and was waiting to die. When the end came last year he was more than ready to go so it was a relief for him when his end came. I’m not going to lie and say I miss him every day because I don’t. I wish I’d been able to see him before the end but maybe that was better not to. I still miss my mom and think about her every day but dad, nah not so much.

Anyway, now that I’m back here again it is with heavy heart that I have to bid you all a good night because it’s getting late here now and I’m growing tired so I’ll bid you a fond good night and leave you with a quote from Mr Mojo Risin’: “Whoever controls the media, controls the narrative as well as those weak minded people who never fact check anything!”

What a way to start a decade

I know that I’ve been missing in action for a long time but the reason for this has been three fold, firstly the pandemic knocked me for six and I didn’t want to come on here and moan for months at a time. Then the vaccine was rolled out (I still caught covid twice despite being vaccinated and boosted). However, I’ve come through it all and hope you have too. Very short post today just to let you know I’m still alive and kicking.

Smashing Icicles Rejuvenates The Soul — The Return of the Modern Philosopher

If I were ever to write a Self Help book, Modern Philosophers, it would borrow the title of this blog post. As I discovered after work today, smashing icicles really does rejuvenate the soul. You can simply trust me on that, or you can go outside right now and test that theory for yourself.  It’s […]

Smashing Icicles Rejuvenates The Soul — The Return of the Modern Philosopher

Oh my lover for the first time in my life my eyes can see

Friday, 19th February 2021, a child was born at 05:52 in Newcastle’s Victoria Hospital Mother and Baby Unit. Her name is Lavania, and she is absolutely gorgeous. She is the ninth grandchild of my wife, our 11th overall, since my daughter has 2 children I’ve never met. I got introduced to her yesterday and, as quiet as she was then, apparently, she made up for it later, screaming the house down all last night and refusing to let my step-daughter get any sleep for the 3rd night in a row. She is just like her big sister was just after being born apart from the dark hair, a full head of it. Her big sister had hardly any hair and what she did have was blond. Both mother and daughter are fine today, not sure about the kids because they weren’t too happy when they found out their mum had given birth while they slept.

For the benefit of new readers, I don’t post very often because I’m a lazy S.O.B. no seriously, I only post when I have something to say, I deliberately didn’t post anything after the events in Washington DC on January 6th 2021, because doing so would have left me wide open to criticism (as I found on Twitter when I spent 48 hours in Twitter jail for daring to accuse tRump of inciting the insurrection). Anyway, I feel that everyone who incited the mob to attack the Capitol building should be charged with a crime of conspiring to incite violence against elected members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, up to and including the chief perpetrator Donald J tRump who, as POTUS at that time, did more to subvert the readiness of the DC police within the Capitol building than anyone else.

On that note I will end my thoughts on the insurrection. I don’t approve of violence in any shape, form, or action, but I realise that sometimes, when you’re faced with someone with a gun threatening your life, you have to do what is necessary to survive, including disarming them and shooting them in the leg to stop them from harming you or anyone else. Is that wrong? If you were the one threatened in the first place you would probably say no, it’s not wrong. I was brought up the same as every one of you, to run from danger, but then I joined the military and that was where my retraining began. I was trained to be aware of my surroundings, watch out for dangers and know how to deal with any situation. I was then put into situations where my instinct said run away, and had to force myself to run towards the sound of gunfire, blasts from grenades and through people running the other way.

Now, I still find it hard to run away from danger, if I hear someone in distress then I run towards the noise. Because of this I have been able to stop women being beaten up by their significant other and advised them to leave the toxic relationship because they are worth more. Whether or not my advice was taken I do not know, all I do know is that the man causing the distress was left down and out while I was talking to the lady. I doubt if many, or even any, of the ladies in question took my advice so I just hope more are still alive than those who are dead.

You keep all your money in a big brown bag

Well, it’s been a while my friend and dear reader, I was hoping not to have to post that, here in the UK anyway, we are still in our 3rd lockdown because some people can’t obey the guidelines so they have now been made law. Shops are refusing to allow anyone inside who doesn’t have a face mask on covering their nose and mouth, there are still those who try. What is the point in wearing a face mask if it doesn’t cover your nose and mouth? Do the men walking around like that really have their underwear pulled down so their penis sticks out? Or so high up their ball sack is showing? And as for the women because there are some of them as well who don’t wear face masks properly, is it because they are going around with their bra under their boobs with the nipples stiking out, or over their boobs so everything hangs loose?

Sorry (that was the only similarity I could think of since women only have one crack). If we have learned one thing from this lockdown as opposed to the previous two it is that Government have no wish to ease this one until the death toll drops into double figures. At the moment it is still over 1k a day excess deaths. The problem in the past was with the government allowing their chief advisor to get away with driving 600 miles while exhibiting the symptoms of covid-19. He has now “gone” as he did in 2019, out of the public gaze and into the back room.

If only the great British Public had realised that there was only one alternative to Johnson, and that was Corbyn. Maybe then we would have had the Government that the country needed. Yes 38% of the electorate voted to “Get Brexit done” believing the lies from the liar in chief who likes the idea of being Prime Minister, but prefers the title ex-PM. The job is proving far too strenuous for his tiny mind to comprehend that what he does has consequences. He refuses to read anything over one page, likes to have a sleep in the afternoons and generally thinks it is acceptable to skip meetings when he doesn’t understand what is being discussed (in other words almost every meeting). Which is why he has so many personal advisers, they attend, take notes, simplify them for an idiot and shorten them then give them to him.

What ever happened to the premise of working as hard as the job decrees? Or should that just apply to the working classes? Johnson believes that he is entitled to do as he pleases and increase his wealth and the wealth of his chums. He is promoting the myth that those on benefits are taking too much out of the public coffers and putting nothing back. In actual fact those taking out of the public coffers are the wealthy, which is why they did everything they could to stop a Labour Government which would have worked for the many against the few. They are all in favour of Starmer because, like Blair before him, he believes that the wealthy shouldn’t pay the price for welfare for the poorest.

Even though the wealthy can afford to give away most of their ill gotten gains in favour of those with less, and still have enough left for 5 lifetimes. I feel that life is for living and living well. At the moment no one can do that, however, once the vaccine has been fully rolled out to everyone on this planet, we can get back to a semblance of normality, we will have to make some changes to our thinking though as we cannot continue to kill this planet we call home. We have to learn from this latest pandemic and return to the ways and wisdom of our elders, live in harmony with the planet and nature taking only what we need, no more no less, and not killing species of animals and insects to the point of extinction.

It’s a very very, mad world

Okay, this is not an original type of post, I know things are getting out of hand so I thought I’d try and lighten the mood up slightly by giving you some more of my list of personal conundrums.

Can you cry underwater?

Do fish ever get thirsty?

Why don’t birds fall off trees when they sleep?

Why is it called building when it’s already built?

When they say dog food is new and improved how do they know which? (New means it has never existed before now, improved means it is better than previously available). Also who gets the privilege (?) of tasting it?

If money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have branches?

Why does round pizza come in square boxes? Why is it sliced into triangles?

Why doesn’t glue stick to its bottle?

Why is it called rush hour when it lasts 2-3 hours and nothing moves?

Why is there never enough hours in the day to get everything done I want to do?

Why is a year only 365 days? It takes longer than that to go around the sun, not a full day but still.