How fortune works.

This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to condole over his terrible loss.
The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?"

A month later, the horse came home - bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses!
The farmer said, "What makes you think this is good fortune?"

The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck!
The farmer said, "What makes you think it is bad?"

A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer.
"What makes you think this is good?" said the farmer.

Gauntanamo Bay living memorial.

Andrews Guantanamo Bay business plan.

Objective:

Create a business model to generate $2 hundred million annual turnover using the resource of Guantanamo Bay by identifying existing demand, harnessing that demand and turning it into a functioning business.

The participants:

1. World Heritage organisation.
2. International War Crimes Court.
3. The Guantanamo business fund.

Step one:

Create the 'Gauntanamo Bay living memorial'. Designated as a World heritage site, Guantanamo Bay Living Memorial will be a magnificent glass structure incorporating the current facility - metaphorically demonstrating the importance of transparency in politics. This structure will readily accommodate 2 million visitors annually. An architectural design encompassing 24 glass cells through which a tourist walkway weaves.

Visitors will enter a visitors centre, much like the gateway for Robben Island visitors in Cape Town. The facility will be open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year - metaphorically demonstrating that evil never rests.

In the visitors centre, guests can view informative displays preparing them for the sights that lie ahead. Including statistics demonstrating the extent of the atrocities committed by the inmates as well as the findings of the International War Crimes court.

Upon entering the facility itself, visitors will follow a glass pathway that weaves through 24 cells. They can stop and view the cells in-mates for no more than 5 minutes per cell and will be allowed to take photographs.

The 24 cells will start with the lowest, least well known of the war criminals, working up to the show piece cells at the very end of the tour. These last 2, numbers 1 and 2 in the countdown, will be occupied by what will almost certainly become the biggest crowd pullers. The two B's. Blair and Bush.

Step 2:

While the construction is underway, an International War Crimes Court, empowered for this purpose, convenes to try the most obvious War Criminals of the past decade, those responsible for the Million deaths in Iraq and the atrocities committed against the Afghani people, not to mention the atrocities they have committed against their their own countrymen in America and Britain.

This Court will identify the worst 24 offenders, handing down 24 life sentences accordingly and also rating them from 1 to 24 in terms of the extent of their culpability. Obviously Blair and Bush will compete for cells 1 and 2, although there will be many shoe-ins for others similarly well qualified. Rumsfeld, Cheney and so on.

These top 24 war crims will serve their life terms in the glass cells of Gauntanemo Bay living memorial correctional facility, on display 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Step 3:

With diligent marketing and a little help from the Cuban tourist board, a target of 2 million visitors in year one is entirely realistic. Given the quality of the spectacle, an entrance fee of $100 is appropriate. Door receipts would therefore be some $200 Million in year one, with tremendous growth potential in subsequent years as the Cuban tourist board exploit the associated possibilities of having so many visitors to their Island. An annual Rock concert featuring Queen and friends could further bolster the funds coffers.

Amortised over a ten year period this revenue should be more than enough to underwrite the cost of the trial and the building of the 'Gauntanamo Bay living memorial' or the GBLM as it will be branded.

Once the 'Big 24' are made accountable and put on display in this way, it will be a lot harder for future politicians to get away with the dreadful abuses of power that characterise this sorry lot.

The music franchise:

Each cell will feature powerful surround sound speakers connected to a Juke-box front end, where visitors will be able to pay a fee to choose a song. For an additional fee they will be able play the song louder. In this way viewers can provide a suitable soundtrack for their experience in the knowledge that they will be helping the inmates karmically redress the weight of the sinful past. For instance, visitors to Mr. Blairs cell could elect the Sex Pistols 'Your so pretty' and have it played at super loud volume during his prayer time. A family whose infant son might have been incinerated by one of Mr. Bush's Iraqi missile's could play Don Macleans 'Wonderful Babies' each time they visit, ensuring the point is  made to Mr. Bush regarding the connection between his decisions and dead children.

The musical directors position would go to a renowned musical authority, versed in popular song as well as karmic balance, whose appointment would establish a library of music per Juke-box, per cell, to cater for any specific visitor requirements and make the experience the best it can be for all parties. This office would rotate on an annual basis to ensure the inmate to not become overly familiar with any particular musical trend.

A family day out:

For children, visiting GBLM will provide a living History lesson as well as an insight into how the world decided to start making mass killers who hide behind God and profit driven political-office accountable for their actions. An important lesson for any youngster looking at the world today.

Visitors will be able to see the look of remorse - or not as the case may be - on the faces of the inmates. Seeing this might provide a nice degree of closure for the family members of the Million plus dead because of Bush and Blairs ego.

Would you visit Cuba and pay $100 to see that?

My Telegraph subscription.

For the past 20 years I have renewed an annual subscription with the Telegraph. Its delivered to my door at around 7.20 am every day by arrangement with the local newsagent. For many a year now I would start my day with a bath at 7.30 am where I would read the sport pages of the Telegraph, migrating from there for the morning cappuccino where I would read the main section of the paper. 30 minutes each day of worthy time investment.

There would always be some piece of journalism that would make me remark on how excellent the Telegraph was. Some story that made me the richer for knowing and enabled me to enjoy the pleasure of sharing with others in the knowledge that I was disseminating information for the betterment of all. An emissary for the highest good if you will. In many a conversation whilst traveling abroad I would refer to the standard of writing in the Telegraph as one of the great things about living in Britain.

But in the past few years I have become aware of change. Change for the worse. The stories frequently appear to me no longer the product of independent thought. Rather I began to notice a trend. An absence of what I felt were the big news items in the world and a preponderance of trivia. Yes MP's expenses are interesting - but not nearly interesting enough to fill page after endless page with whilst making no reference to far more serious abrogations of Ministerial responsibility - like those MP's responsible involving Britain in sick cruel and costly wars with Countries who represent no threat to Britain - or indeed anyone other than themselves. I am far more interested in Blair's accountability as a hypocritical lying Bush-licking war-monger than some nobody-MP-from-nowhere fiddling a mobile phone call.

In a nutshell - the Telegraph no longer presents news that holds my interest. In cow-towing to prevailing commercial and political pressures, the editor and his team have distanced themselves from my interest whilst simultaneously offending my sense of fairness in regard to misrepresenting what is important. Upgrading trivia in the name of PC and commercial interest over real and relevant issues of the day.

Why then should I sign up for another year of paying the £300 plus that it costs for me to see the Telegraph appear in my hallway each morning? If I cant change the way they operate with my words at least I can change it with my consumer dollar - the most powerful force for change known to man.

All that remains now is the familiarity argument. For so long now I have loved the morning paper that the thoughts of waking up to find the hallway without that image - the folded broadsheet, is a little unnerving. But my decision is made. And the deadline for renewal is today.

The Telegraph do not miss a trick though, and someone there noticed my failure to send in the annual payment. Yesterday a well spoken young lady called to remind me that the renewal deadline was fast approaching. I explained that I was not renewing because I was 'disenchanted with the news.'
Information which blunted her sales pitch considerably.

So an era for me has ended. No more Telegraph delivered to my door. I don't imagine this separation will be easy. We have been so close for so long, but I stand determined. My place in the relationship has been taken for granted and I have become no more than a patsy. Something has to change and this is it.

I will let you know how things work out.

Scientific proof that Evolution is a lie

I received an e-mail directing me to a page that offered 'Scientific proof that Evolution is a lie' the conclusion of which proves the existence of a great and merciful God. The sheer weight of ignorance that accompanies the argument prompted me to post a message - which I enjoyed writing so much I thought I would share it here.

.........

Is this the same gracious and merciful God who created dinosaur fossils to test our faith or the kind and benevolent deity who created Sarah Palin in his image so that the terminally retarded can experience the certainty of superiority, or just the one you rely on to prolong your inability to become self accountable. Stop being lazy. Learn how to read and then start reading and learning. Stop deluding yourself that the divisive and harmful belief system you promote is anything other than a failed and exposed device by which the greedy enslave the ignorant to serve their purposes.
Belief in your 'one and only God' has killed more people on this planet than any other single cause. It is not a charitable system that offers upliftment for the dispossessed or peace and brotherhood to all. It is a philosophy that guarantees death. Death by the Billion since the onset of the age of religion.
Enough already. Its one thing to be so desperate that you have no where else to turn and in your vulnerability become susceptible to the cynical overtures of Religions salesmen with their promises of 'Eternal life' and 'Hellfire for non believers for all eternity' but it is quite another to maintain this foolishness past early adolescence. The only excuse is plum laziness. Too darn shiftless to get your brain working. Here's a simple road map.

God = division = condemnation = persecution = war = death. Therefore God = death.

Promoting belief in a omnipotent-omniscient yet invisible God is akin to waging war.
Isn't it time you allowed the evolutionary process to help your brain enable escape from the shackles and bonds of your moronic denial based belief system?
Its not that hard. Just look around you, at all the beauty the surrounds you. Life is beautiful if you choose life. Beauty is everywhere. The world is a beautiful place and it would be better still if you would cease and desist your misguided efforts in fomenting war and conflict by disseminating the same exposed nonsense that has been plaguing the planet since the onset of blind faith and in this way you will eventually become a human-being worthy of being called human as opposed to carrying on your praise of ignorance in the Church of the dumb fuck.

Gods work is done. Mans time has come. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

270 Vs 290. Megrahi VS Rogers III.

Whoever would have thought the release of a sick old man from a Scottish prison could provoke such outrage in America, the basis of which appears to be directed toward the moral character of a man involved in bringing down a plane with 270 innocent civilians on board. 270 innocents whose lives were snuffed out so cruelly in so cowardly and unjustified a manner.

I am reminded of events preceding the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on 21 December 1988. I refer of course to the other civilian plane crash that occurred just 5 months before, on 3 July, 1988, when 290 innocent civilians, 66 of whom were children, died.

This is the day a guided missile cruiser, the USS Vincennes, fired upon an Iranian Airbus, Flight 655, operating an established route between Teheran and Dubai, while flying inside Iranian airspace.

This event occurred just weeks after President Ronald Reagan assured the Iranian people in a televised address that they would never be allowed to win their war with American backed Iraq. The shooting down of Flight 655 was effective, showing Iran that Reagan spoke much truth, and the 8 year Iran/Iraq war ended shortly after this incident. Clearly those 290 deaths were not in vain.

Reagans Vice President Bush (Daddy of Dubya) said in reaction to the outcry at the time:

"I'll never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are"

The author of the Iran Air misfortune was Captain Will Rogers III of the USS Vincennes. The baying for pay-back-blood that accompanied and continues to accompany the Pan Am bombing has been entirely absent from Western media almost from the moment the Iran Air Flight 655 met the sharp end of the US Missile. In fact, the author of that misfortune did not face trial for murder, or homicide, or even military malpractice. Instead he was presented with the Legion of Merit decoration "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service as commanding officer ... from April 1987 to May 1989", by none other than Americas leading apologist, George Bush senior in one of his first duties as President.

Perhaps Gaddafi's celebrating Megrahi's release is a reminder of the celebrated return offered to Capt Will Rogers III?

It is inconceivable that no link exists between Pan Am Flight 103 and Iran Air Flight 655 and yet in all the miles of newsprint arising from Megrahi's release I have not seen one reference to Iran Air Flight 655.

To recap by way of conclusion on 2 events from 1988:

1. Iranian plane bombed by Americans. 290 dead. American shooter given medal by the President. Compensation paid to victims.

2. American plane bombed by Arabs. 270 dead. Arab fall guy who convinces no one of his guilt must rot in jail until dead or Americans will stop drinking Scotch whiskey at a time when they clearly need it the most.

To paraphrase Borat. 'Thatsa Nyse.'

Megrahi and plane murder.

The newslines are awash with outraged Americans bemoaning Scotland's humanitarian release of the terminally ill Megrahi. A man whose links to the Lockerbie crash are uncertain.

What is certain is that Pan Am flight 103 went down on 21 December 1988.

What is equally certain, but a lot less well remembered is the other event involving a civilian airliner just 5 months before, on 3 July, 1988.

This is the day a US guided missile cruiser, the Vincennes, deliberately fired upon an Iranian Airbus, Flight 655, operating an established route between Teheran and Dubai, flying inside Iranian airspace when it was shot down laden with 290 civilians, including 66 children in an event just weeks after Ronald Reagan assured the Iranian people that they would never be allowed to win the war with American backed Iraq. The shooting down of Flight 655 was effective, showing Iran that Reagan spoke much truth, and the 8 year war ended shortly after this incident.

Reagans Vice President Bush (Daddy of Dubya) said in reaction to the outcry at the time:

"I'll never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don't care what the facts are"

I don't think its a huge leap of logic to imagine that some of the 290 passengers on that Iranian Airbus A300 flight had relatives and that those relatives were not satisfied with the US payment of 131 Million dollars in compensation, or that USS Vincennes Captain Will Rogers III should not be prosecuted for murder but instead given a hero-medal. Perhaps Gaddafi's celebrating Megrahis release is a pointer to the celebrated return offered to Capt Will Rogers in 1988?

I think it is far more likely that Pan Am Flight 103 was the reply to Iran Air Flight 655. And to imagine that 1 lone Libyan could mastermind and be made accountable for this beggars belief.

Chainism. Holistic discrimination.

Consider a chain. When tested for purpose, it will be as strong as its weakest link.

Consider a belief system that is based on blind faith. Lets use the handsome young Pakistani Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab as an example. A young man so blinded by belief that he chose to go off and machine gun innocents in neighboring India. It may be that our Mohammad has many fine qualities, and I bet somewhere a friend will proclaim how nice and gentle and loving he was - but the measure by which he will be seen where life's achievements are counted - is by this weakness. His blind faith in an imaginary God.

Because by accepting without substance belief in an imaginary being, a precedent is set. You must then accept any number of possibilities that lead on from this irrationality. Mohammad can justify his murderous actions on the same basis as every believer.

Belief in imaginary things places a kink in the chain of possibilities for developing awareness of the life experience.

Chainism is the holistic idea that you consider the value of people by the sum of their weakest and strongest qualities, not solely their most trumpeted strengths.
In military confrontation and even in competitive sport, the effective tactic is to identify the opponents weakness and play off that. Your opponent is as strong as his strongest weakness.

In the discrimination process by which we decide whose opinions and wisdom to believe and be influenced by, it becomes clear that those with the most to offer qualify because they have strengthened the weakest-link in the chain of their self awareness.

An example: Michael Jackson.
Strengths: talented young singer dancer in the 70's.
Weakness: Consumed by drug addiction delusion.

Measure of overall holistic chain strength: Tragic deluded failure. Had some early fun, got to play with Eddie Van Halen, but otherwise missed the point.

Try James Brown:
Strengths: Used compulsive obsessive control skills to bully a funky groove out of underpaid musicians until he established a legendary reputation as the Godfather of soul.
Weakness: Consumed by drugs and became by all accounts a thoroughly nasty piece of work.

Measure of overall holistic chain strength: The funky groove comes from a pretty unfunky and uncool place, so how funky cool can that groove really be. Conclusion. Overall - not the King of Soul at all. Sad deluded control freak mired in narcissistic flatulence.

last example: Keith Richards.
Strengths: Guitar playing songwriter and reliable friend.
Weakness: Well - you try find people to say bad things about Keith. A well liked man.
Measure of overall holistic chain strength: A successful life balanced in self fulfillment, having fun and helping others.

You try some now:

Michael Jacksons children

I am bemused by press suggesting a custody battle for the 3 Jackson children is imminent. What custody battle?

Children are not chattels whose ownership is defined by possession.

So clearly in the case of the Jackson children (The first 2) the fact is Michael is obviously not the (biological) Father and Debbie Rowe is definitely the Mother.

Unless she is so unfit as a Mother that it is clearly in the childrens best interests never to see her, which is on the face of it extremely unlikely, is there any possible argument for the children not to go to her?

And what kind of Wacko decides its in his (and in this case not even biologically his) kids best interests never to see their Mother.

Must the wacko-ness continue even now, when the deleterious consequences of the wacko lifestyle have become so painfully obvious?

It is very unusual that the children's best interests are not served by being with a biological parent.

Guantanemo Bay

As readers of the BBC web site are being invited to propose suggestions for Guantanemo Bay, here is mine:

Turn it into a tourist monument to illuminate the consequences of corrupt leadership.

A glass cage in which the top ten of the Bush administration would be displayed for 24 hours a day, in orange suits, for the remainder of their lives would be a fitting return for the harm the Bush men have visited upon the planet and a small step towards rehabilitating Americas image within the expedient of transparent accountability.

I think this would attract huge crowds - this living monument to the extremes to which corrupt power was enabled by the greed of a few and the compliant idiocy of another.

Americans could vote on who the top ten who should occupy this cell would be. I am guessing Dick Cheney would be a shoe in.

Chikurubi Prison.

'You judge a nation and its people by the way they treat their prisoners.'

Chikurubi prison lies 12 miles east of Harari. Chikurubi prison is a monument to the relationship between Zuma and the guest of honor at his recent inauguration, Robert Mugabe.
Without Zuma's support for Mugabe it is a certainty that Chikurubi prison would not provide so chilling a testimony to Mugabe's malign influence.

Of the 1,300 inmates at Chikurubi in the past year, more than 700 have died of what is described in the Daily Telegraph as 'revolting conditions.'
The revolting condition most affecting the residents of Chikurubi is the inescapable fact that Zuma and Mugabe's ongoing friendship is directly and unavoidably at the heart of every Zuma/Mugabe sponsored death in Zimbabwe.

In a nutshell - while Mugabe quaffs champagne (Imported from France and not the excellent South African variety) with Zuma - inmates of Chikurubi prison are left to ruminate on how Black African leaders continue to demonstrate their inability to rise above the constraints of the Muntuism that is their legacy.

More than half of those admitted to Chikurubi in the past year are dead.

And the irony is that the same ignorant halfwits whose attitude of 'I didn't vote for the ANC - I voted for Zuma, because he understands us' represent the same demographic as those populating Chikurubi prison. The ignorant deluded poor empowering the morally bankrupt rich leadership to kill off the ignorant disempowered poor.

Go Jacob Zuma. Sponsor of Chikurubi, proving every action has a reaction.

Leonard Cohen.

This is the greatest rhyming couplet I have heard today. I think it will become Barack Obama's theme.

From Leonard's song 'Everybody Knows.'

Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joes still pickin cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

Religion, delusion and prison

Here's a great statistic that I came across earlier.
10% of Americans are Atheist (or Agnostic). However .25% of the prison population is Atheist. I checked a registry of UK Prison population and found .2% of the prison population are Atheist, and in the UK the percentage of Atheists/Agnostics is approaching 50%

My conclusion is that the neediness and weakness that leads believers into choosing a value system that is so clearly disempowering, divisive and at odds with basic common sense, as is the case with the major religions, results in the non-accountable delusional belief that accompanies crime of a prison worthy nature.

Atheists on the other hand have accepted personal accountability and do not seek to apportion blame for their personal inadequacies on spurious notions like 'Original sin' and penitence leading to forgiveness. They are therefore more likely to not commit criminal acts because they are not trained to believe someone/something else is responsible for everything they do and will forgive them for the price of a few spoken words.

It is interesting to see the top and bottom list of the Countries by percentage of Atheists:

Most Atheist are:
Sweden. Vietnam. Denmark, Norway, Japan, Czech Republic, Finland, France.

Least Atheist are:
Somalia, Tanzania, Yemen, Western Sahara, Philippines, Romania, Pakistan, Cambodia, Iran

Success in Afghanistan

While American and British forces put in place by the Bush/Blair axis of evil continue consuming Billions of dollars that may or may not be helping fuel the global recession in Afghanistan, I have to admit at this point that I have for some time felt that:
1. Making War without provocation threatening survival is indefensible and should be treated as a crime.
2. People who justify and support war (unless when facing a threat to survival) are not acting for the highest good and
3. Dropping expensive bombs by remote control on poor people and their children, is an open invitation for karmic return that will mean returning as a mosquito - or worse.

So I have been clear from the outset in my disgust at the barbaric abuses of power by the Bush and Blair regimes of terror, especially in their inhumane use of expensive technology to bomb a Country already more bombed than any other. Afghanistan is an almighty mess. As if they weren't buggered enough by centuries of exploitation by the evil cult of submission that mires them in a dark age mentality, requiring the men to grow beards, wipe the poo off their bottoms with their left hands, avoid pork whilst simultaneously praising the deified memory of a 53 year old fellow who had sex with a 9 year old, but is not considered a pedophile. This same fellows book designates all women inferior status to men, requiring them to dress in Burqas and legally sanctions assaults by their husbands at a whim.

Easy then to see why Western conscience would be outraged by stories of Taleban men raping 10 year old boys and committing all kinds of Muslim themed atrocities on defenseless civilians. That outrage was used to raise the Christian Armies of Bush and Blair to go 'teach the Talies a lesson.'
Years have passed and now we can review the outcome of the Blair/Bush zealotry.

Since December 2004 Afghanistan's leader is Hamid Harzai.
We should remember his name as our tax dollars were the cause of his election.

Hamid is a Muslim and so sees nothing untoward about his most recent contribution to Afghani law. A bill which legalizes rape in marriage. The law, which has not been publicly released, is believed to state women can only seek work, education or doctor's appointments with their husband's permission.
Only fathers and grandfathers are granted custody of children under the law, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

Opponents of the legislation governing the personal lives of Afghanistan's Shia minority have said it is "worse than during the Taliban".
Mr Karzai has been accused of electioneering at the expense of women's rights by signing the law to appeal to crucial Shia swing voters in this year's presidential poll.

So in a nutshell. We raised an Army to go teach the Taleban that their Muslim ways were not acceptable. Bush explained how we gave them democracy - out of which came Karzai to give us this new consideration.

Islam. Whats not to love about it?

Burqas have many practical advantages

Those of us who have looked upon the wearers of Burqas with horror, seeing this barbaric assault on that most basic of womens rights, the right to choose a public persona, as yet another instance of how poorly Islam treats its female membership whilst wondering as to the mental state of any woman willingly submitting to this abuse of a life experience, will be heartened by the following insight, told to me by a Security guard employed by Harrods.

He said 'Women in Burkas frequently and happily poo on the floor of Harrods from the safety of their black robes because they do not want to pay £1 for the toilet despite spending a fortune on hand bags.'

Its worth a little ponder.

Apostasy and Islam

Another of the wonderful arguments that belief in Islam brings to the table is 'Apostasy - The Consequence.'

Meaning once you submit to Islam, there is no going back. No option to review your position in the light of new information. Should you wish to commit the crime of apostasy, and choose something like, Atheism, Scientology, Buddhism or even nihilism, the penalty is death. It is not difficult to see how, for children born into Islamic belief, this may present a potential for conundrum.

The death penalty for apostasy is not some age old edict that has fallen into disrepair, like the christian one that demands the killing of homosexuals, but a working example of how Islamic believers continue to apply their faith in the Quran.

All of which came as bad news for Abdirahman Ahmed, a Somalian Islam who evidently turned his back on the prophet and was found guilty in accordance with the Quran by an Islamic Sharia court. He died by firing squad on Thursday 8th January 2009, for the crime of Apostasy.

The Sharia court in Kismayo, Somalia, who pronounced his guilt decided that he should only be killed 'after the afternoon prayer session' which is a little mystifying. Why not execute him before prayers and then say prayers after. Or, seeing as there are prayers 5 times each day, which prayer session is the most important with regard to executing an apostate. It all seems so confusing sometimes.

My question is this. Is there not enough sickness in the world.