Tuesday 12 April 2011

Drink in pubs, not at home says coroner - Telegraph

Drink in pubs, not at home says coroner - Telegraph

A coroner has urged people to drink “sociably and sensibly” in pubs after noticing a rise in deaths linked to cheap alcohol consumed at home.

William Armstrong, the Greater Norfolk coroner, said some people had drunk themselves to death with alcohol bought from supermarkets for less than £10.

He said: “From my perspective, there’s an increase in the number of deaths from acute alcohol poisoning where people have consumed massive amounts in one session and died from alcohol poisoning.

“Pubs, for the most part, encourage sensible, social drinking. Most people who have drunk themselves to death have not been drinking in pubs, they’ve purchased cheap drinks from supermarkets. People have died from alcohol poisoning which has resulted from them spending less than £10.

Sue Coleman, of the Licensed Victuallers Association, said: “When you’re in a pub, you’re not drinking for the sake of it, you’re there for the social aspect.

“When you buy a drink at the bar you will be assessed by the bar person as to whether they think you should have any more. You don’t get that at home.”

Sarah Cordey, spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, said: “Supermarkets are the most responsible sellers of alcohol. They enforce Challenge 25 to prevent under-age sales, display 'Know Your Limits’ unit labelling and provide funding for the Drink Aware campaign. There’s no evidence to link the way alcohol is sold to problem drinking.”

If I want to drink myself to death it is my business and not yours. Fuck off and die in a fire.

We know what you want to happen. You want to make beer more expensive. If you want more people to drink in pubs get rid of the smoking ban you cunts.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

The future

Where are we going, where am I going? My life is quite dull at the moment. Around me the world goes from one disaster to another, with very little in the way of fun to report in the news. My own personal life is depressing, although getting a part time job for Tesco's has been a boon.

The earthquake in Japan has affected me more than other disasters in recent times. I don't want to sound harsh - and I should really give a fuck about other peoples - but I have a soft spot for the Japanese; usually I couldn't care less about major disasters. Watching the power of the Tsunami destroying entire towns kind of brings things into perspective with my own life. I know that the Japanese will pick themselves up and rebuild. I need to stop moping and do so myself.

Monday 7 March 2011

Spring is in the air.

Today I woke up a new man. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder; winter is a very tough time for me (so bad in fact, that only the other day, I contemplated ending it all). Today is a good day however, because there is an abundance of sun and my flat is south facing. Today I feel alive, and despite my problems, I am resolved to enjoy myself. So, I want to revisit the wonderful and magical world of NLP.

Have you ever heard of the expression "chin up": This usually happens when someone wants to point out you look miserable and wants to lift your mood. Well, there is some justification in this statement and you can try it for yourself.

Try to think of something bad while looking at the floor and notice how you feel. Do the same exercise but look up at the sky. The difference is amazing: Just by changing your physiology you can change your mood - now that is magic. I have known about Neuro Linguistic Programming for quite some time now. The hard thing for me is to put it into practice so it becomes a habit.

There are many techniques that are very helpful in NLP. Here is a short video of an NLP mood changing tool called the SWISH pattern (Derren Brown uses this a lot).

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Interesting comment Ed West Blog.

“Arab countries are not “nations” as we understand it.”

And neither is Britain! Since going “multi-ethnic” in such a big way.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a NATION is “a large aggregate of people so closely associated with each other by factors such as COMMON DESCENT, language, CULTURE, HISTORY, and occupation of the same territory as to be identified as a DISTINCT PEOPLE” [my capitals].

Also, "ethnic" drives from Greek ETHNOS, meaning a PEOPLE or a NATION, making the notion of a “multi-ethnic British nation” an oxymoronic absurdity.

It's an absurdity which the majority of Britain's indigenous (ethnic European) population, are mildly to extremely uncomfortable with (depending on circumstances), but can say, let alone do, nothing about, without being branded and dismissed as “racist” by STATE media (the BBC), which the rest of the media and political elite had to follow, or be branded “racist” themselves, just as anyone deviating from state/church ideology in the Middle Ages was branded a “non-believer”, “heathen” or “heretic”.

Europe’s tribal societies were destroyed by the STATE centuries ago, which then coerced and taught us to identify ITSELF as our tribe or nation, which we owed our powerful (and in times of war, passionate) tribal loyalties to. This made the state extremely powerful and goes a long way to explaining European global dominance.

Only, the British STATE is not a NATION, but merely poses as such, in order to facilitate “society's” self-exploitation (as an artificial environment) to the advantage of power, wealth, privilege and now, of course, “talent” (and not just at the BBC). When the principal interest is in “human resources”, “markets” and voters as vassals to the political elite, race and ethnic origins (vital to “human beings” for a deep and meaningful sense of personal and group, e.g. national, identity) are irrelevant, except as as something to deny the importance of as an expression of “moral superiority” and continued allegiance to the STATE.

Sunday 13 February 2011

Libertarians are hypocrites if they use the NHS?

I saw the following comment on this post on the Libertarian alliance blog. The general point is that Libertarian minded people (in this case Ayn Rand) are hypocrites for using state funded healthcare etc. This comment by C.H. Ingoldgy (below) neatly sums up my take on it.

"A typical example of a dishonest leftist argument.

The State takes money from you by force and imposes a monopoly of medical treatment. If you then have to use that State provided treatment, which you have already been forced to pay for, then somehow this makes you a ‘hypocrite’ if you disagree with this state of affairs.

According to the leftists, for a Libertarian to be true to his principles he should refuse the treatment he has already been forced to pay and instead die.

A perfect enlightening of the warped logic and fundamental dishonesty of the leftists."


What do lefties expect us to do, we are not driven by dogma. That is their concern. Rational self interest is what generally drives me. As Ayn Rand -who is the target of the original article - put it:

"Whenever the welfare-st­ate laws offer them some small restitutio­n, the victims should take it."

Then of course there is always the character in her novel "Atlas Shrugged" called Ragnar Danneskjold: The pirate who stole back taxes and returned them the rightful owners. Oh arrrgh me hearties.

Twitter

I woke up this morning and confronted an issue that has been troubling me for some time: Why am I unable to articulate myself well in the long form of writing? For the first time I am going to post on the internet in a complete stream of conscientiousness. In the real world I have -- I think-- a very good grasp of communicating with people face to face. I find it very easy to start conversations, with anyone, on just about any subject. I am also quite capable of developing arguments and at the same time empathising with those whom I am engaged with. I enjoy verbal communication immensly; I would put it down as the main reason I enjoy going down the pub - beer does help though. So why is it, I am completely useless at articulating myself through writing?

Recently I have become addicted to using the micro-blogging site Twitter. One of Twitters drawbacks is actually an advantage to me personally - and I am certain, many others too. If you only have 140 characters to get your message across then fancy words are not really that important. Another advantage - over essay writing - is simple: I do not need to engage in a lengthy and daunting reply where my writing skills may be used as an argument against my intellect. Argument on Twitter is brilliant; it becomes like a wrestling match, where one person tries their hardest to concede submission from their opponent. This works rather well when there are a number of people (spectators) watching a particular hash tag and cheering you on.

Yes I am crap at writing in the long form; I feel like a hod carrier attempting brain surgery. Who do I blame? Well who else can I blame other than my comprehensive school and my parents. I don't really blame my parents as they were never academic. The only person who had any form of higher education was my uncle (who became a toolmaker and obtained an HND in engineering). My parents didn't have money and there was only one school that was an option. The blame must surely go to St. Birinus School in Didcot. My English language lessons were to a large extent ruled by apathy and anarchy. Some teachers couldn't command respect and the class deteriorated into a scene from the Lord of the flies; other teachers were hard on discipline - to the extent we were shit scared - and unapproachable. How on earth could I become motivated under these conditions? If you didn't get into the A stream you were doomed as far as English language lessons were concerned.

Once I had left school and joined the Army there was no need for writing skills. The telephone was all that was necessary to convey messages. None of the jobs I have had (since I left the Army) have required me to use the written word either. The internet has changed all that. Suddenly, ordinary people can have their voices heard globally. This development is obviously a good thing, because exchange of ideas has an unlimited potential for human development. It is also an incredibly powerful means of protest.

So I will do my very best to improve my writing, but if all else fails, fuck it, Twitter is fucking uber cool for ranting and raving. Long may it continue.