Strangely Perfect

Metropolitan Police Wear Examined The appearance of “our” police is becoming more and more like some hellish dystopian vision of oppression from all the best science fiction of the last century. Compare and contrast the two shots below; one from the finale of the BBC series Blakes Seven, the other from the Whitehall kettle during [...]

The Hell of Incessant Suffering and the Land of Tranquil Light Note: This was originally published here http://buddhastate.co.uk/blog/?p=30 on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at 4:28 pm and filed under Buddhism..  The link has been dead for quite some time, looks unlikely to re-appear,  so I’m showing the words here as they are so wonderful because [...]

Introduction Last April (9 months ago), I contrasted the sling and arrows of fortune as they applied to an admitted mass-murderer and one convicted of mass murder who always protested his innocence.  (see Megrahi and Calley Compared and Contrasted) Now, fully 9 months after the wholesale shock in the West at Megrahi’s early release (the [...]

Obama President Obama was elected under the banner of change. Change for the overall health of his nation Change in economics and finance Change of a re-assertion of the higher ideals of his nation expressed in the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Rights. In this last, he even promised this change in his [...]

Alan Johnson Sacks the Messenger This, of course, relates to the recent sackings and supportive resignations of Government Scientific Advisors (see More advisers may go in drugs row) . The home secretary faces the threat of more scientists resigning after sacking his chief drugs adviser Prof David Nutt for his comments about cannabis policy. Two [...]

PreScript Advice If you think you’ve had your bank ‘cleaned out’ by any of a multitude of ‘life cleanse’ or ‘colon cleanse’ type internet scams, there is only one real remedy… Ask for a charge-back against the company through you credit card company. Your reason, when asked, is that the company has either: Not adhered [...]

Who?  Who Are Megrahi and Calley Megrahi is a Libyan, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 270 people by blowing up a 747 over Lockerbie in Scotland – but released early after 8 years (but 10 years in prison) and sent to Libya to die of cancer. Calley is an American, convicted and [...]

Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, aged 23, of Ketchum, Idaho, is a member of the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, from Fort Richardson, Alaska.  He was captured in circumstances that aren’t clear and has appeared in a Taliban video (prev at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-soldier20-2009jul20,0,4913063.story), seen world-wide. So far, it appears [...]

Introduction Many years ago when I was living in France and during a prolonged period of French atomic weapon testing on the Moruroa atoll, the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, was blown up in a New Zealand harbour. Initially, it was thought to be an accident. Now, as soon as this happened, I thought “who has [...]

Freedom and the Law In stark contrast to the US which still insists on draconian measures against people thought to be bad (the lowest of the low Rumsfeld called them), the UK has had a landmark ruling for common sense in a democratic, freedom-loving country. Nine Law Lords have unanimously ruled it was unfair for [...]

Sex and Death, Death Sex, Death and Sex, AND the Death of Democracy. I’m yet again struck by the rampant hypocrisy from America.  It’s citizens seem to think that everyone in the world has to follow their peculiar mores and morals to the letter, conveniently forgetting that they won’t abide by their own rules written [...]

In the above video, shot with a mobile phone and first reported at the beginning of April this year, some blokes, watched by a load of other blokes, whip a young woman for breaking some law. At that time, the Taliban blokes (for it is them) had just come to an agreement with the Pakistan [...]

I’ve been thinking about the perilous mentality of the 52% of Americans who think torture is all fine and dandy.  And then I saw a neat little video piece on the BBC this morning which casts a few French people in the exact same spots in June 1944 and now.  It’s here: D-Day in France: [...]

A Week is a Long Time in.. Q.  In What? In prison – yes obviously In politics – yes In a relationship – well yes, especially the past week for me In Between News Items…. Yes! That’s the one! Last week it was announced to the world that 196 convicted French prisoners are going to [...]