tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21114412341324005582024-02-19T10:11:12.469+00:00Riverbank NewsAndrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-34292871674155308712015-08-23T01:35:00.002+01:002019-11-26T18:52:45.361+00:00New Book released August 29. One Day in Paris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>One Day in Paris</b>. A Novel by Andrew Brel</h2>
Read by clicking <a href="http://www.amazon.com/One-Day-Paris-year-Blake/dp/1514183862" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0_J9vTmTzdQnJoL_kzPpws9XcL38G4NVoo8flf2IWKRHPzICexdMBQxF_Tfq3kRKojgSQV3W7oyKPQTHhPrk7qnMjaqQZ-DBRgITKB01eF51B5sdb_BS7vgv6_sONZ53ClKicsu0A9D-p/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-08-22+at+17.28.34.png" title="http://www.amazon.com/One-Day-Paris-year-Blake/dp/1514183862" width="320" /></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-87415116516340579382013-11-07T19:51:00.001+00:002013-11-09T19:33:25.982+00:00Cafcass<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the matter of children from broken homes, the government agency responsible for advising the Courts on parental contact is Cafcass.<br />
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You can follow the progress of my Cafcass story <a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/cafcass/" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/cafcass/">http://www.andrewbrel.com/cafcass/</a><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-33896283955067982482013-08-14T18:02:00.003+01:002013-08-14T18:05:33.730+01:00My wordpress blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/my-first-wordpress-blog/" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgysBEYanx6XQEIISSGnxi_xBsGmqPfzlRCQ_cL0cMMXc9sKOrpmFTE3hyphenhyphenCdOu1vrVLKMzsS-aHSoe-u1GhjvVU1GPLY3zeLli8LJya5YYxvq-gTvDvrjEynUj-ET5-xx9OqJ7I0LEyJL19/s320/eyeqicVxk0QBRx9IwbAXPLlyzdX2OQ.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a> </div>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2111441234132400558" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2111441234132400558" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>After several weeks of learning wordpress, my new site with its own wordpress blog is up and running.<br />
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<a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/my-first-wordpress-blog/" target="_blank">Heres my first blog post.</a><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-76125676616716918842013-05-17T15:10:00.001+01:002013-05-21T10:21:34.326+01:00Auto Europe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpSZYbJVVRLxC_Ingxs6Jk3KcsdCjZv0gMj5FO9RT095aK42YxqJ8o71c4YBEjgsslMaFi_ZYBW8lsWr-OOp8R3xS2fD107nAzriN5ETRv44_n7mV_OUrpnBokjyoyK1YjXXC1IIjag4Mk/s1600/936778_158321557675083_393477737_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpSZYbJVVRLxC_Ingxs6Jk3KcsdCjZv0gMj5FO9RT095aK42YxqJ8o71c4YBEjgsslMaFi_ZYBW8lsWr-OOp8R3xS2fD107nAzriN5ETRv44_n7mV_OUrpnBokjyoyK1YjXXC1IIjag4Mk/s200/936778_158321557675083_393477737_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
On May 4th, I arrived at Murcia Airport to collect my rental car, booked and paid for with Auto Europe.<br />
My first indication that all was not well is when I saw the length of the line at the counter for Auto Europe's partner, GoldCar. It would take 65 minutes to reach the front, and during this time, I went forward to see what was causing the delay. I heard the same complaint each time. '<i>This is ridiculous. I paid for the Insurance online.</i>" Another said "<i>This is just a con. I have a package including all Insurances</i>." The gist of what was causing this long delay became apparent. Finally, 65 minutes later, I reached the front of the line and was invited to take out a further Insurance of E45. I referred him to the existing Insurance. <br />
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<i><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">"Listen
to me carefully. This Insurance means nothing. You have no Insurance in
Spain". </span></span></i><br />
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In a very short space of time it became clear that the Counter Assistant had lost his way, as his presentation<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[1].[1][4][1]{comment10151654176061807_10326722}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[1].[1][4][1]{comment10151654176061807_10326722}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0"><span id=".reactRoot[1].[1][4][1]{comment10151654176061807_10326722}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[3]"><span id=".reactRoot[1].[1][4][1]{comment10151654176061807_10326722}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[3].0"><span id=".reactRoot[1].[1][4][1]{comment10151654176061807_10326722}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[3].0.[6]"> transcended regard for the customary professional
constraints associated with the office of car rental counter employee,
</span></span></span></span></span>deviating alarmingly into furious raging aggression in limited English, applied with a strong Spanish accent. When I directed him the the terms and conditions on the Auto Europe document, which states the Insurance position very clearly, Mr GoldCar, finally gave up any pretense of civility.<i> </i><br />
<i>'You get no car from me. Now you can walk' </i>he shouted throwing my card back at me.<br />
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And so, around 11 pm on a Saturday Night, in Murcia Airport, which is small and not a place you expect much by way of taxi service, I was left stranded without a hire car, with a party of four including a 3 year old child, whose first question was <span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> '<i>Daddy, why did that man shout at you</i>.'</span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">The start of our one week holiday in Spain was effectively ruined from that point. <br /><br />Upon my return one week later I contacted Auto Europe with details of my complaint. Some correspondence flowed - an offer of Fifty Pounds by way of compensation, which I declined, and then the MD of Auto Europe mailed me, this time with an accusatory tone saying he had stalked my Facebook page, despite the privacy notice governing that particular practice by uninvited stalkers, and didn't like the tone with which I had described events in Murcia. (You can read that page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151654176061807&set=a.321602536806.188428.615931806&type=1&theater" target="_blank">Here</a>).<br /><br />I made a settlement offer, following advice from the Trading Standards Institute, and when the deadline for that offer expired without reply, on Friday 17th, I decided to proceed with my complaint. Trading Standards were extremely helpful, and after a thirty minute conference, the matter was issued as 'Unfair Business Practice' and A Reference handle created, meaning events are now underway.</span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">In the interim I created a Facebook Page to document the correspondence and report progress. Which you can visit <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/AutoEuropePolicy" target="_blank">Here</a>. </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">My intention is to progress the Trading Standards complaint and following that outcome, claim in County Court for damages against Auto Europe. The costs arising from the unilateral breach of contract and the miss-leading fraudulent advertisement of a product; A fully Insured rental vehicle, which turned out to be not Insured at all despite the payment being taken and the documentation of confirmation being issued. Add the that being stranded abroad in an Airport late at night with a small child. I calculated it took three days to calm down and start to enjoy the holiday. So I will pursue one third of my holiday costs, as well as the cost of the transport I had to arrange following the cancellation of the car I had booked and paid for. I expect tpo add my legal fees to the claim.<br /><br />But mostly, I wish to help anyone else from being victim to Auto Europe and their fraudulent scam. They should not be allowed to get away with it and the more people who know about my experience, the less likely it will be that Auto Europe can carry on their sharp practice. </span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">To this end I have posted details on <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187518-i980-k6508247-GoldCar_in_Murcia_Airport-Murcia.html" target="_blank">TripAdvisor Murcia page</a>.</span> </span></span></div>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="userContent">Here's my <span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.reviewcentre.com/Car-Hire/Auto-Europe-Car-Hire-www-auto-europe-co-uk-review_2038151" target="_blank">Auto Europe review on Reviewcentre</a>. </b></span></span></span></span></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-67606444068587965862013-03-20T12:41:00.001+00:002013-03-20T13:02:01.518+00:00Phil the Greek<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Google Phil the Greek and you will arrive at Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.<br />
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But how Greek is Prince Philip.<br />
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Not at all is the answer. No Greek DNA just Danish, German and Russian.<br />
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His mum was born in Windsor Castle and was German, a Battenberg family member, named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Alice_of_Battenberg" target="_blank">Alice</a>. (Alice went bonkers but recovered and stayed in Greece during the Nazi occupation to save Jews from deportation, according to Wikipedia. When she was required to leave Greece after the Royals were kicked out in 67, she returned to Buckingham Palace. After her death, her remains were moved to Jerusalem for burial in the Mount of Olives.)<br />
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Philips dad was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Andrew_of_Greece_and_Denmark" target="_blank">Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark</a>, who was born in Athens to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Greece" target="_blank">Father who was Danish</a> and a mother who was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Constantinovna_of_Russia" target="_blank">Russian</a>. (A member of the Romanov dynasty who married King George when she was 16. A very religious woman who upset conservative believers by promoting a new translation of the gospel in Greece. )<br />
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His Grandad was born Prince William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, in Copenhagen to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_IX_of_Denmark" target="_blank">Danish father</a> and German mother, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_of_Hesse" target="_blank">Louise of Hesse-Kassel. </a><br />
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So there you have it. No more Phil the Greek. Its Phil the Danish German Russian. </div>
Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-15074114495268286612013-03-18T10:46:00.002+00:002013-03-21T10:14:41.268+00:00My home made guitar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTg43s-Wrc3gXCMs4gjj9Qt-Lm38grDLjLrDiQW-5s9RaKnh7OKcgWwKqo7_ukzlutR6LO3G81guOOy0-kjVS2quUJ7U1ED12ZwR2wpaOn2up9ldi0XJkzQw7dZ71fdYQFJrR4q-2HNeds/s1600/abroulidakis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTg43s-Wrc3gXCMs4gjj9Qt-Lm38grDLjLrDiQW-5s9RaKnh7OKcgWwKqo7_ukzlutR6LO3G81guOOy0-kjVS2quUJ7U1ED12ZwR2wpaOn2up9ldi0XJkzQw7dZ71fdYQFJrR4q-2HNeds/s400/abroulidakis.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This picture is taken in 1982, in the straw roofed rondavel at the farmhouse in Chartwell which I turned into a recording studio. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the left - in the snare stand - is my Oberheim DMX, probably the first one in South Africa. The guitar was my home made travel guitar - which would evolve into a fantastic recording instrument before being stolen in 1989 during the burglary at my studio in Hampton Court. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heres the guitar story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jose Fernandes, with whom I shared this 500 acre rental farmhouse in Chartwell for the last two years I lived in Johannesburg, bought one of the first Midi tracking guitars. A Roland GS 500. A Les Paul style body and a midi box of sounds. Problem was it tracked too slowly - especially on the low notes - and so it soon became apparent it was unsuitable for purpose. And then Jose dropped it, smashing the top half of the headstock. At that time Steinberger had brought out the little headless 6 string - in black - and I wanted one of those as a travel guitar. So I appropriated the carcass of the Roland Synth guitar and set up a work bench. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtOAPCh2RyZrM6qDL2vxS880tgEih8BMxdbZIDLmSSH4DD7Bqu5EFavtWiTfYdDwZdgI1aDgQ0WpUrEGqOExG2BIJZwW2mBesM_lmg3_qIRoDSqTN110EQ_Pe2jPusAfjpsZcxyu1fjjCu/s1600/url.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtOAPCh2RyZrM6qDL2vxS880tgEih8BMxdbZIDLmSSH4DD7Bqu5EFavtWiTfYdDwZdgI1aDgQ0WpUrEGqOExG2BIJZwW2mBesM_lmg3_qIRoDSqTN110EQ_Pe2jPusAfjpsZcxyu1fjjCu/s200/url.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bear in mind I had no experience with the craft of the luthier and no skills with woodwork. My sole qualification was having read about Brian Mays efforts with a fireplace. With a vice holding the guitar, I sawed off the headstock. I had a friend with an engineering works, and I drew a design of a piece of metal with six little dips in it, to attach to the end of the sawed of neck - where the strings would fix on. He made it for me and I screwed it into the back end of the neck. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I traced out a design of how I wanted the body to be, modelled mostly on the Steinberg shape. The Roland was a solid chunk of wood - and so I decided to make the tuning pegs attach to a pyramid cut out on the right hand side. (You can see the original Grover heads from the Roland in the picture next to my right hand.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I removed the midi tracking pick up and replaced it with a di Marzio Humbucker at the back and a Seymour Duncan (purple) on the front. The Seymour Duncan was the most expensive part of the Instrument - bought from Eddie Boyle at Toms for top dollar. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each pick up I wired to its own jack output in my only foray into soldering electronics. It had two volume knobs, one for each pick up. O</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ne pick up went into a volume pedal - where I could bring it in or out with the accompanying sound. When I used it at gigs, the clean pick up went straight to the PA - and the dirty pick up(The Di Marzio) went to the guitar amp so I could shut it down with the volume pedal until I wanted that sound.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found the Roland neck was too thick, and I guess I was just extremely lucky that when I shaved and sanded the neck back to get it to match the contour of my hand, somehow it worked, despite a total absence of any wood working skill. The neck became the best feature of the guitar - much like a thinline Tele neck.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem with my design effort was the balance. With the bulk of weight on the neck side, the guitar would not hang in a neutral way. This made it a headache at gigs. It would droop down to the left.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few years passed, I moved the England, and found myself in a music shop in Addlestone, where I met a Luthier - Tom Anfield. I showed him the guitar, which he loved, and he came up with an ingenious design for moving the centre of gravity for attaching the strap. A six inch wooden piece on a rotating screw that would fold out to hold the strap end. By extending the strap holding width - and using trial and error on the length of the wooden add on - eventually we had the guitar able to balance neutral. And when it was stored - the 'Anfield add-on' rotated back into a cutaway bit of the body to become invisible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the guitar now a joy to hold as well as to play, I began using it at gigs and for awhile it became my main instrument. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then in 1989, my studio at Hampton Court, at 3 Bridge Road, was burgled and included in the thieves tally was this guitar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For years I hoped its distinctive style would lead it back to me, but now, 23 years later, I have come to terms with its loss. This may in part explain my fairly extensive collection of quality guitars, compensating for the disappointment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have never since dabbed with either woodwork or soldering.</span></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-51598939695977703762013-03-12T09:48:00.001+00:002013-03-12T10:18:19.129+00:00Greatest hits of religious music<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWmVQAeP1i-2euEjCrhHlS3oEYxm1eKuSX-s4XxSzG7wG7xbnL3GBse03ibpQrbgz86p0JSc3jyJlzZWxChUsMTsPoM7XKDI8SWCxf7V27fvJpWMo4AG0-fYofAGH4YUTfSu3SLj81lCb/s1600/url.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWmVQAeP1i-2euEjCrhHlS3oEYxm1eKuSX-s4XxSzG7wG7xbnL3GBse03ibpQrbgz86p0JSc3jyJlzZWxChUsMTsPoM7XKDI8SWCxf7V27fvJpWMo4AG0-fYofAGH4YUTfSu3SLj81lCb/s200/url.jpeg" width="190" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a favourites list of the most articulate songs dealing with Religion.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Frank Zappa - Dumb all Over </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Tim Minchin - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTIorwtJbhE" target="_blank">The Pope Song</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Garfunkel and Oates - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ36S3d1CaU" target="_blank">Fuck me in the ass because I love Jesus</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ead1dc;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. The Who - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RnArqJbZ4M" target="_blank">Man in a Purple Dress </a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. John Lennon - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFLKyAGzzI" target="_blank">Imagine (Playing for change version)</a></span></span><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-87622829771037738302012-11-19T19:23:00.001+00:002013-03-18T08:52:31.373+00:00A fundementalist moderate.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Moderate</b> and <b>fundamentalist</b> are widely used
measures of value. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Moderate</span> is understood to be - reasonable and not extreme,
while <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">fundamentalist</span> is used to describe rigid adherence to a principle.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">Quite
often these words preface the word Christian or Muslim as if the measure of a
belief reliant on an absolute set of instruction can ever be sensibly applied
to the relative concept of moderate or extreme.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br />
The use of this terminology is misleading by design. It has a powerful
pejorative association which promotes confusion and misunderstanding. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Religious belief is a simple set of
constructs which succeeds mainly because of its on or off value. You either believe or you don't. The degree to which you believe
plays no part in this arrangement. If it did - if you could say - I am a
Christian most of the time, but occasionally I moderate my Christianity by
dabbling in the Occult, then, clearly, you are not a Christian. You are either
subject to the dictate of the belief, or you are not. </span><br />
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Belief is in this sense comparable to
Virginity. A clearly defined circumstance determines the yes or no to the
question. It makes no sense beyond deliberately misleading to suggest one is a
moderate virgin or a fundamentalist one. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">If you are a Christian - you believe
Jesus is the son of God, conceived by a virgin birth who died and was reborn,
and who will fix it for you to spend eternity in heaven. Its a pretty
straightforward set of yes or no constructs. You cannot be both a believer and
a denier of the factual determining aspects of the belief. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">Islam is identical
in this regard, and its the same with all religion. You believe or you don't
believe. That is what determines whether you are a Muslim, a Christian or
whatever you belief. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The issue of piety
is a separate matter, not related to the yes or no of moderate or fundamentalist
belief.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Suggesting one believes a lot more than
another is as ridiculous as suggesting one virgin is more extremist in the yes
answer to the question of her virginity.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br />
Often this condemnatory and misleading representation - fundamentalist - is
used to somehow imply that one believer is bad while other believers - who are moderate
- are less bad. The purpose this serves is to obfuscate the reality that all
believers rely on the same imagined perception, the mighty all-seeing god, from
which any justification for any lunacy can be established. <i>'Oh, he's a
fundamentalist and that why he did it'</i> protects the lunatic aspect of the
belief from association. But its deceit word play. You either believe or you
don't believe. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br />
Despite the convenience it represents for journalists, there is no such thing
as a moderate Christian or a fundamentalist Muslim any more than there is a
fundamentalist virgin and a moderate pedophile.</span></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-30078436249771582702012-10-25T11:01:00.000+01:002013-03-18T08:59:56.314+00:00Call that flu.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In January 1918, even as World War 1 was raging, a new viral war had begun. Described as "<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">The greatest medical holocaust in history</span>" this largely forgotten flu epidemic killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24
years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">WW1 would go on to kill some 9 million people. <span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">The Spanish flu pandemic</span> that started in January 1918 would go on to kill between 20 - 50 million, before being finally eradicated by December 1920.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Using the 50 million upper estimate, that represents 3% of the World population at the time. Some 5 times more people died in the year after WW1 from catching flu than from the bullets and bombs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The movement of troops in WW1, many weakened by malnutrition, helped spread the virus. It may even have hastened the end of the war, as the first wave affected Germany and its Allies first, their increased mortality leading to a crumbling of resistance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was named the Spanish Flu because although outbreaks in France were extreme, censored press during wartime meant restricted news. The pandemic received wider press attention after it
moved from France to Spain in November 1918, especially after King Alfonso became infected, generating huge press interest. Spain's neutrality in WW1 meant no wartime censorship.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The origin of the Spanish flu pandemic, and the relationship between the
near-simultaneous outbreaks in humans and swine, have been
controversial. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnx6JiTZNGDzEE6mKytygpIevnnH5dbEeH4o5txdk7CSOrZ_vJPIKR9HWlueWNWdzd7VKnvlX_GBRYdpSq-mt8FtRes_HMIyw3e_y2c5cRR9Dz4LMws7ytRMORlv8GWBaN7QUYqFKQumVB/s1600/787px-Spanish_flu_death_chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnx6JiTZNGDzEE6mKytygpIevnnH5dbEeH4o5txdk7CSOrZ_vJPIKR9HWlueWNWdzd7VKnvlX_GBRYdpSq-mt8FtRes_HMIyw3e_y2c5cRR9Dz4LMws7ytRMORlv8GWBaN7QUYqFKQumVB/s320/787px-Spanish_flu_death_chart.png" width="320" /></a>The source was quite probably a major troop staging and hospital camp in
Etaples France, where a virus was harbored in birds, and mutated to pigs that were
kept near the front.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Another theory is that the virus strain originated at Fort Riley, Kansas, in viruses in poultry and swine which the fort bred for food; the
soldiers were then sent from Fort Riley around the world,
spreading the virus.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The virus infected about one third of the worlds population. 10 - 20% of those infected died. <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">In India some 17 million died.</span> In Britain, 250,000.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The virus killed through a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">cytokine storm</span> </a>- causing the body's immune
system to overreact - which made it most effective in young strong
people, rather than the weak and elderly, as is the case with most viral
infection. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Death came mostly by bacterial pneumonia, and often directly by hemorrhages - bleeding from mucous membranes, especially from nose, stomach and intestine, and edema of the lung.<br /><br />The most vulnerable group were pregnant women - 23 - 71% and most vulnerable age range was young adults 20 to 40 year old's who account for 50% of fatalities.<br /><br />The virus raged through the summer of 1918 and in August a second wave, a mutated even worse version struck.<br /><br />In civilian life, natural selection favours a mild strain. Those who get
very ill stay home, and those mildly ill continue with their lives,
preferentially spreading the mild strain. In the trenches, natural
selection was reversed. Soldiers with a mild strain stayed where they
were, while the severely ill were sent on crowded trains to crowded
field hospitals, spreading the deadlier virus. The second wave began and
the flu quickly spread around the world again.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A big spike in fatalities occurred in October 1918. This occurred right after the US Army Surgeon General and the Journal of the American Medical association recommended prescribing very large doses of Aspirin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And then - after the lethal second wave struck in the autumn of 1918, new cases dropped
abruptly – almost to nothing after the peak in the second wave. Possibly because the 1918 virus mutated extremely rapidly to a less lethal strain. This is a
common occurrence with influenza viruses: there is a tendency for
pathogenic viruses to become less lethal with time, providing more
living hosts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Possibly improved medical treatment of pneumonia symptoms also helped. </span><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-18467665247003901022012-10-18T19:44:00.001+01:002013-03-12T10:28:05.132+00:00Joseph needs your vote.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsu_oM0jwOyd-M8NhPwN9IyZ0oWWaLG19sXMLoVvP1HhaYUdQSgggdrDWQME4RplvGEno6xiYQpWF_9DZNYpKaamFuN0KO1M3mmDBHZzyT5QQYXQi6xp7RscMHKv-SkAE30YZC6RoBLUZ/s1600/Joseph-Smith-mormons-344391_640_480.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsu_oM0jwOyd-M8NhPwN9IyZ0oWWaLG19sXMLoVvP1HhaYUdQSgggdrDWQME4RplvGEno6xiYQpWF_9DZNYpKaamFuN0KO1M3mmDBHZzyT5QQYXQi6xp7RscMHKv-SkAE30YZC6RoBLUZ/s200/Joseph-Smith-mormons-344391_640_480.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I am considering the position of the Republican voter and have reduced it to three possibilities:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: red;"><br /><span style="color: yellow;">1: They don't know or care about Joseph Smith, red is the colour and anti-gay, anti choice, anti liberal is all that matters.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #eeeeee;">2:
They know about Joseph Smith and find his qualities as a narcissistic
fraud to be appropriate and desirable for the job of President.</span></span><br />
<i> or</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: yellow;"><span style="background-color: blue;">3: They are securing the Bona fides of a willful idiot. </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mitt,
like any believer, is defined by his belief. Mitts belief is in Joseph
Smith and his book of Mormon and if you are familiar with the story of
Joseph Smith - you know Mitt is either an idiot for
believing that second rate claptrap - or a man cast in the fraudulent
lying image of the one he professes such life affirming dedication to. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">So any
voter must at some point ask themselves - does it matter if I vote for a
man who openly professes life affirming dedication to a man defined by
his<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"> <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.exmormon.org/whyileft.htm">his love of fraudulent deceit</a> </span></span>- his love of many wives for one man - and his masterful confidence trickery in all matters of<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><a href="http://truthshallsetufree.com/Testing_the_Prophets.html"> visionary revelation</a></span>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Its not as if<a href="http://www.exmormon.org/tract2.htm"> <span style="background-color: #f1c232;">information on Joseph Smith</span></a>, his fraudulent deceits and his narcissistic personality disorder is hard to come by. He died in 1844 and<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"> </span><a href="http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon430.htm"><span style="background-color: #f1c232;">records of his life</span> </a>are reliably recent.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I am not
sure that it makes much difference to the worlds perception of America
as a land of idiots whether Mitt is elected or that he was even
nominated and in a position of being this close to being elected.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here's the<span style="background-color: #f1c232;"><a href="http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/59507/detail/"> South Park</a> </span>summary to remind us that, whatever the polls for Mitt are - 40% or whatever - of Americans are dumb dumb<a href="http://carm.org/joseph-smith-quotes"><span style="background-color: #f1c232;"> dumb dumb dumb</span>.</a></span></span><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-39925055899388087972012-10-05T09:40:00.000+01:002013-03-12T11:03:51.175+00:00South Africa and AIDS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Went for a wonderful dinner last night in Wimbledon with a South African medical professional and authority on HIV who shall remain nameless.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">South Africa is the worlds leading AIDS community with <a href="http://www.avert.org/south-africa-hiv-aids-statistics.htm">statistics that beggar belief</a>. An estimated 5.6 million people were living with HIV and AIDS in South
Africa in 2009, the highest number of people in any
country.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Considering the spectacular record of failure that has accompanied the ANC years in power, these 3 points arising from my conversation last night will surprise nobody.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Zuma</b> has been taking antiretrovirals for his HIV+ status for ten years. This makes his 'shower defense' after the alleged rape of his HIV+ house guest entirely plausible. Its probably safe to assume that his multiple wives and all the people they sleep with are similarly affected and are themselves on antiretrovirals as well.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Thabo Mbeki</b> was taking antiretrovirals for his HIV+ even when<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/26/aids-south-africa"> denying AIDS was a virus,</a> saying "<i>The cause was poverty, bad nourishment and general ill-health. The solution was not expensive western medicine, but the alleviation of poverty in Africa.</i>" Some <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html?pagewanted=all">365,000 deaths followed</a>, but not his, thanks to the antiretrovirals. His health minister,the now deceased <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8416659.stm">Manto Tshabalala-Msimang</a>, had
proposed garlic, lemon juice and beetroot as AIDS remedies - while hundreds of thousands died and billions were saved on the Health budget spend for antiretrovirals. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>80% of the current ministers </b>are on antiretrovirals.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Heres<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/history-official-government-hivaids-policy-south-africa"> an interesting page on the history of HIV in SA</a>. </span></span><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-31489487223127648522012-08-01T13:23:00.027+01:002013-03-12T11:06:11.318+00:00Killing for fun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1KaQizWgErooCcyvYuZMYKtPHzIatkBqbsoC0qvHw-PopIS22LYgz0u8Df6sO2hRWQ8wh3TRjJJpgKKtH-LRVCB7T0DxlPxGxVJVmqnQTx6mUvgdo7uLYi-vSbRWpxELERFBzldtKyCs/s1600/551759_517431201617085_305366129_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1KaQizWgErooCcyvYuZMYKtPHzIatkBqbsoC0qvHw-PopIS22LYgz0u8Df6sO2hRWQ8wh3TRjJJpgKKtH-LRVCB7T0DxlPxGxVJVmqnQTx6mUvgdo7uLYi-vSbRWpxELERFBzldtKyCs/s400/551759_517431201617085_305366129_n.jpg" width="300" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are few areas of human endeavour more disturbing than so called Sports Hunting - the euphemistic misnomer for the expanding business of<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG5skhQiCP0&feature=g-upl"> Killing for Fun.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The destruction of wild and caged animals perpetrated deceitfully as sports by one class of people and allowed for reward by another represents a prodigality and wastefulness which even the lowest savages would find inexcusable.<br /> <br />It is as wrong for a minority of sociopaths to be allowed to openly pursue this deviant blood lust as it is for those agencies rewarded for licensing the kill for fun business. It has no more to do with conservation than licensing pedophiles expensive opportunities in an orphanage would benefit children.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />On the surface, at the heart of any ethical and moral consideration governing human conduct, those who kill defenceless animals for no higher purpose than their own amusement, trophy's for vanity and thrill of the kill, are wrong and in the absence of any conscientious epiphany connecting them to humanity, should be stopped in their killing tracks by law.<br /> <br />The most confusing part of this arrangement between man, appetite, ethics, conscience and dominion over the animals is that there is any debate at all.<br /> <br /> Consider <a href="http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/further-activities/canned-hunting/">the photos</a><a href="http://www.petersenshunting.com/files/2012/08/Corey-Cogdell.jpg">. </a>The ubiquitous Internet spread photos of Kill-for-fun glorious triumph arising from the need to show off the trophy. Anyone looking at one of these pictures of a fashionably dressed killer, rifle in hand, sporting a broad grin while they lean over the bloodied carcass of a 500 pound Black Mane Lion they have just shot in a cage, cannot fail to be drawn into the ethical position of what is going on.<br /> <br />These pictures offend on two levels. The morality of the subjects - proudly displaying something that is to the reasoned eye akin to watching a rapist show a video of his proud moment - and as they have become so very widely seen by so many, they serve an important role in glamorizing killing. Many who see these pictures without awareness of what is going on - see a proud winner - a beaming, victorious, triumphant mans-man - killing for glory. And the thought that killing is a splendid idea, the behaviour of champions and something worth emulating - takes hold.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The real name for Trophy Hunting is Killing-for-fun and it is a walk of shame for its participants. There is no possible avenue of debate that diminishes the value of life sufficiently to outweigh this reality. It is deviant behaviour giving rise to consequences.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Killing-for-fun is a terminology that leaves no room for confusion in the business of how we consider the moral and ethical issues arising from killing animals. Abattoirs feeding beef into the food chain, farmers killing animals for the community pot, conservationists needing to cull for balance, or survivalists needing to protect the home tent from Grizzly bear attack, all present a case for the killing of animals and all exclude the element of fun. Where there is a trophy involved - where there is no motivation greater than the entertainment element, the thrill of killing - it becomes Killing-For-Fun and it is this practice and this conduct that must be identified in law.<br /> <br />Killing-For-Fun is legal in those Countries where it is most prevalent, and especially in America, not only is killing for fun celebrated as a legitimate sporting activity, it is actively encouraged and promoted to many young people in a manner that reinforces the practice as a traditional right. Almost 5% of Americans kill animals for fun. All Americans who hunt, killing-for-fun, are by definition, ignorant malevolent human turds - like big time hunters Dick Cheney, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent. (Turd Nugent?).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />After 4 years of legal wrangling over canned hunting of lions in South Africa, on Monday, 29 November, 2010 the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa ruled in favour of the lion breeders. Canned hunting continues to be legal in South Africa. I can find no record of any legal challenge to the ANC over any Kill-for-Fun issue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />It is open season in South Africa a country with a long established tradition in legalizing Kill-for-Fun hunting going back to the period shortly after the arrival of the British in 1820. The San peoples, subsistence hunter gatherers known today as the Khomani San, were indigenous to the area. Unaware of the concept of property and theft they found the British farmers produce irresistible and helped themselves. The solution was to reclassify the San as vermin and undertake Kill-for-Fun hunting parties. And so a tradition was born.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Killing-For-Fun is a multi-billion dollar per year industry and like any sinister commercially motivated social arrangement based on the obviously wrong; like the Slave trade, like the Tobacco industry, Killing-For-Fun relies on a propaganda drive to sustain it for as long as possible after the critical mass of popular awareness reaches its tipping point. It starts with the name 'Sport Hunting.' Could anything be less sporting than a high powered telescopically sighted distant bullet felling a sedentary caged animal whose sporting participation is to do no more than die.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />That tipping point for this gratuitous killing of animals for fun is now. Those involved in this odious industry will not stop pursuing the growth and expansion of their business model without a change in the law. And that change can only come from you and your voice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: #ffd966;"><b>Every man is guilty of the good he did not do. ~ Voltaire</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Imagine that you are a human being and that you have a voice and your voice is your vote and your time to vote is now. Either you condone Killing for fun or you don’t. It couldn't be simpler. You can stop the practice of Killing-for-fun with your vote at the next election. You could write to your representative and express your concerns, but really, all you have to do is make a decision. Is it right or wrong that Killing for fun is legal. Is it acceptable that pro killing lobbyists - like role model Olympians - should be allowed to openly promote Killing for fun?</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLXHIpJqtUpZAjRiuGE0USKkJ-jFSybFauJpDZ-X8n5SfeMLwI-2HKxOHdy8lYiJvzAVvvntHhIq4imUhfQN1eXVctFqSndjtMgmh0A3AJQh6i_OCkd0AGBswwTOV47jBouo_6Sp4-eYu/s1600/561127_10151150611916807_618911806_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLXHIpJqtUpZAjRiuGE0USKkJ-jFSybFauJpDZ-X8n5SfeMLwI-2HKxOHdy8lYiJvzAVvvntHhIq4imUhfQN1eXVctFqSndjtMgmh0A3AJQh6i_OCkd0AGBswwTOV47jBouo_6Sp4-eYu/s320/561127_10151150611916807_618911806_n.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Killing-For-Fun has two main areas of supply and demand. The demand lies mostly in America where children are raised to view hunting animals as a right of passage.<br /> <br />“Johny killed his first bear when he was 11. Took him don clean with a throat shot and then finished him with one to the head.” Little Johny glows with pride as Dad recalls his manly moment to beaming granny, who nods knowingly.<br /><br />In 2001, in the USA over thirteen million hunters averaged eighteen days hunting, and spent over $20.5 billion on their sport. Thanks to the promotional efforts by celebrity killers of big game like US Olympic athlete Corey Cogdell, this number is growing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />And the richest supply area for this demand is Africa and especially South Africa. Organisations like the sinister ‘<a href="http://www.huntinglegends.com/">Hunting Legends</a>’ who offer their 'outfitting services' to hunt anything that moves and design their website to attract visitors to opportunities like ‘Come hunt the big Five’ or ‘Special offer – Male and Female Lion pair at below market value rates.’</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />They set a ‘Market Value’ for the life of each species. Obviously the more endangered the item, the higher the price. For the big game hunter - the more endangered the animal is, the better the fun. Imagine the thrill of killing an animal so rare, you might be the last lucky person to pop a cap in that ass.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The providers of the kill-for-fun opportunities in Africa are authorised to kill in this way by Government Authority. In South Africa, one of the leading markets for big game kill for fun opportunity, the ANC Government have taken a view on policy regarding animal conservation and decided not to interfere with the Kill-for-fun market. A business generating hundreds of millions of rands each year, enabling companies like<a href="http://www.africahuntlodge.com/giraffe_hunt_package.asp"> 'Africa Hunt</a>' to advertise -<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>'<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">The Limpopo Province of South Africa is the premier destination in the World to hunt the Giraffe. Year round, we offer hunts for awesome Trophy Giraffe. There are no seasonal restrictions on hunting the Giraffe in South Africa, which makes it a suitable trophy year round.'</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Should your thrill requirements extend to a whole family of Giraffe, just say. For a small surcharge, with thanks to the ANC Government making South Africa the world leader in this fun, you can elect to take the whole family in the same shoot. Mum, dad and baby Gerald, for that little extra zing.<br /><br /> The South African Kill-for-fun operators have been so successful in this market place that the local source of Lions for Lion kill safaris has exhausted supplies to the extent that<a href="http://www.four-paws.org.uk/website/output.php?id=1246&idcontent=2121&language=1"> Lions from European Zoo's are shipped in</a> to boost local business. This includes canned hunting. Where the animals are confined to a fenced in area, making them easy to locate and kill. Essentially - it is a cage where the hunter can safely stay on the outside whilst being guaranteed of finding the prey easily. Often the prey is hand reared and semi-tame. Canned hunting is extremely popular in America, where 'Born Free' estimates more than 1,000 canned hunting operations trade, while nearly 54,000 animals were killed in 2004 in South African canned hunts. The client base of African Hunts is almost entirely from: USA, Britain, Spain, France and Germany.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />At this time South Africa's government have no reviews of the kill-for-fun laws. It remains open season. Apply for a concession. Pay the tax and you too can set up a lucrative business selling kill for fun opportunities like Hippo, Crocodile, families of Giraffe, entire Lion Prides, Baboon, every form of Buck, Warthogs, Hyena, Zebra. Even donkeys. It is only a matter of time before some enterprising trader sees the value in offering big dogs to the market. Or is it.<br /> <br /><span style="background-color: #d9ead3;">The African Big Dog Hunting safari.<br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_2140098451">'</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=510339462326259&set=a.510327185660820.138709.510323068994565&type=1&theater">Come hunt Africa's big five dogs - Alsatian, Doberman, Bull Mastiff, Rottweiler and Great Dane.</a>'</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Wives don't have to be left out. For the ladies we provide light guage shotguns for the mini poodle shoot. They can shoot mini poodles fed in on a conveyer belt, until they have enough of the kill thrill.<br /> <br />The law will not change without voter pressure. Imagine if you cancelled your next South African holiday until the Government outlawed all forms of 'Kill-for Fun' animal slaughter. The ANC enable kill-for-fun. Why not tell your travel agent the reason you are not supporting tourism to South Africa. If the fall off in tourism dollars exceeded the revenues from the sale of kill-for-fun business, the law would change.<br /> <br />Times change and as they change so our relationship with morality shifts, sometimes towards the higher good. Only a few hundred years ago slave traders presented humans at market for good Christian buyers to negotiate their ownership. At that time many would have looked on in horror, disbelieving that conduct so obviously at odds with the notion of acceptable human behaviour existed at all, let alone be allowed to continue. But continue it did, with many voices raised in its defense, all of which had one thing in common. In some way they profited from slavery, be it through cheap cotton picking labour or through domestic help in the kitchen or through Christian Southern Daddy ordering the maid to bend over and submit sexually.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Killing-For-Fun is a lot like slavery, in both the analogy and in practice. Just as arguments were raised in defense of slavery, the pro fun-killing lobby have their various arguments by which they defend their right to continue their tradition. Appropriate in this context, as all English students of Political History will recall, are the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies in the Profumo trial when presented with his fallacious denial. ‘Well he would, wouldn’t he.’ </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The pro fun-killing lobby argument is based on no more than that. They will say what ever they need to say to fly in the face of what is blindingly obvious. Killing for fun is not only wrong. It is unacceptable in the same way that old men having sex with 9 year old's is unacceptable. Those who practice Killing-For-Fun are not defending some constitutional right, or as is often presented as their justification - supporting conservation. They are killing-for-fun. An offense against nature that normalizes a behavioral pattern that says ‘Killing for fun is OK.’<br /> <br />I wonder if there is any credible argument refuting the connection between America’s world leading position in fielding serial killers hunting humans and the popularity of Killing-For-Fun. I doubt it.<br /><br />Those suppliers in the commerce in that drives this bloody business interest in Africa, the game farm operators, farmer owners of large tracts who see thrill kill licenses as lucrative revenue generators which they present as a conservation opportunity, and their accomplices in Government, both rely rely on one thing for their business model. Your silence. Or, your unawareness of what it is they are doing that keeps you from having an opinion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The presentation of the conservation argument - Kill-for-fun benefits conservation efforts - is like the Pedophile orphanage argument. Lets charge Pedophiles to play in the orphanage because it will raise lots of money to help the poor orphans. We could set a market rate. Two years old's at a real premium.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The most successful of Africa's Kill-for-fun operators are connected to Government offices and the amounts involved reflect the popularity of their product in Americas wealthy kill-for-fun market.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are two examples. Chelsy Davy, occasional bed-mate of British Royal, Diana's son Harry, is the daughter of </span><a href="http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4812:name-and-shame-charles-davy-zanu-pf-sponsor-partner-hunter&catid=38:travel-tips&Itemid=18" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charles Davy</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Charles is a big game hunter with extensive game rich property holdings in Zimbabwe, Mugabe's kingdom, better known for evicting white land owners than encouraging them. What is the secret of Charles' success in this market where white landowners are disadvantaged in extremus? If you want to hunt rhino – you can find out for yourself. There's big money in being a prudent conservationist. Especially one whose daughter nobbs royalty.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Then there’s the growing crop of South African brokers of kill-for-fun opportunity. Groups like Hunting Legends, where, for a fee you can be driven to a safe spot close to where Hippos graze, sight up a hippo through your telescopic scope and blast his brains out before being led to the carcass for a photo opportunity.<br /> <br />Big crocodiles are another popular draw. And for those American clients looking to relive the glories of a good southern lynching, no longer available to a wealthy American gentleman, for an add on fee you can have the next best thing. The South African Rangers will hang your crocodile from a tree for your photo opp. So advanced is this practice that the post kill photo opportunity with the slaughtered animal includes a set of standard positional poses for the carcass. Consider the challenge with a giraffe. Where would you put the neck for maximum photographic effect? Its hard work being a kill-for-fun entrepreneur with the ANC program.<br /><br />The organisations supposed to be defending the rights of the animals are themselves seemingly as corrupt as Interpol with is former employees relationships with fraud. Spain's WWF Honorary president, until very recently, was King Juan Carlos, a man who at 18 shot his 14 year old brother, Alfonso, in the face and still went on to become a brilliant big game Hunter. His exploits include bringing down 4 year old domestically raised Russian Zoo Bear, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151148436061807&set=a.10151146973301807.509312.615931806&type=3&theater">Mitrofan</a>, who was fed Vodka and released from his cage into the Forest to provide keen King Carlos with a target. Only after hurting himself on a Hunting trip in Botswana where he was killing elephants did it become untenable for the WWF to pretend that they were anything more than a distraction to those interested in animal protection.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8whALupmwzP25Rx3mOfOjOZX7Aj1iEZgd0sMkwzR3pngd0KDy3Q4LEcjQN3d6s0Jru5fGbuuA93aBLoj_pD4GsF-k-OtwwjRD_sfzmge1_qpBYB3FvJXm0sAaOS6gxQMRRIZF9diV5bDd/s1600/531176_10151148432346807_1135957785_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8whALupmwzP25Rx3mOfOjOZX7Aj1iEZgd0sMkwzR3pngd0KDy3Q4LEcjQN3d6s0Jru5fGbuuA93aBLoj_pD4GsF-k-OtwwjRD_sfzmge1_qpBYB3FvJXm0sAaOS6gxQMRRIZF9diV5bDd/s1600/531176_10151148432346807_1135957785_n.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like the slaves, who had no voice for themselves, and who suffered and died only because a dumbed down majority said nothing, animals die for exactly the same reason today. Kill-for-fun industry can only continue with your approval. If you say no - to the practice and to the people practicing it you will become the voice of those animals. They do not want to be gunned down for fun. And they are not in any way a part of some conservation drive. They are simply victims of an ignorant vanity, into which successive generations are groomed to support the industry arising from the fun to be found in killing. The kill thrill.<br /><br />All you need to do to play your part is to demand an end to Killing-for-Fun. It is not a legitimate sport any more than whipping slaves or raping maidens ever was.<br /> <br />Killing for fun is wrong. It is indefensible on any level and it should be outlawed.<br /><br /><br />Facebook pics are <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151146973301807.509312.615931806&type=1">here</a>. And my song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG5skhQiCP0&feature=g-upl">KILL FOR FUN is HERE</a></span><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-86746475103145290942012-07-24T19:32:00.005+01:002013-03-18T09:12:27.653+00:00McDonalds Olympics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US">According to <span style="background-color: yellow;">Article 27 of the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights" style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</span></a><span style="background-color: yellow;">, </span>"e<i>veryone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author".</i></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Consider for a moment the moral and material interests of the people of Olympia and the games they devised. The games at Olympia – a festival in honour of Zeus that attracted the best athletes from all over Greece who would come to the Olympia games to compete in a range of events, long distance running, sprint races, horse racing, pentathlon, discus, javelin, jumping, boxing, wrestling and so on, in the hope of winning the highest accolade available to an athlete. The Olympic title. The games would close with the presentation of the olive leaf crowns.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">These events began around 760 BC and took place every four years, growing in popularity to peak around 500 BC, after which time increasing Roman influence in Greece led to a decline in their popularity and their pagan origins became a target for authorities to eliminate. Around 400 BC Emperor Theodosius destroyed many Greek temples in a purge of Pagan custom, and the Olympia Games ended.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Years later in 1821 after Greece emerged from the 400 year nightmare of Islamic subjugation, Greek interest in reviving the Olympic Games began. The poet and newspaper editor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panagiotis_Soutsos"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Panagiotis Soutsos</span></a> in his 1933 poem "Dialogue of the Dead" recorded the intention for Greece to return the tradition of Olympic games. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelis_Zappas"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Evangelis Zappas</span></a></b>, a wealthy Greek-Romanian philanthropist, first wrote to King Otto of Greece, in 1856, offering to fund a permanent revival of the Olympic Games. Zappas sponsored the first <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zappas_Olympics"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Olympic Games</span></a> in 1859, which was held in an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Athens</span></a> city square. Athletes participated from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Zappas funded the restoration of the ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panathenaic_stadium"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Panathenaic stadium</span></a> so that it could host all future Olympic Games. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panathinaiko_Stadium"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Panathinaiko Stadium</span></a> hosted Olympics in 1870 and 1875. Thirty thousand spectators attended the Games in 1870. The legacy of Evangelis Zappas and his cousin <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantinos_Zappas"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Konstantinos Zappas</span></a>, was also used to fund the Olympic Games of 1896.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">In 1890, after attending the Olympian Games of the Wenlock Olympian Society, Baron <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Pierre de Coubertin</span></a>, a French aristocrat, former pupil at Rugby and academic, was ‘inspired’ to found the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Olympic_Committee"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">International Olympic Committee</span></a> <b><span style="color: red;">(IOC).</span></b> This in no way might be misinterpreted as seeing a good idea and stealing it because there was then no idea of Article 27 of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</span></a> or even consideration for the value in an intellectual property. Or to put it another way; Intelligent rich Frenchman sees huge reputation building opportunity and very successfully puts one over Greek chaps of less fortunate education and means, to secure for himself and his own name an idea that was not his, creating ownership of copyright to a name that is not his with the intention of generating commercial gain out of the new copyright without including the creative originators of the various constituent parts of the copyright, including the owners of the name Olympia. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Bearing in mind at that time Greece was only a few decades out of the 400 year Muslim oppression which had suppressed education, and as a result there were not many highly educated Greeks able to negotiate at the same level as the better qualified French.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Coubertin built on the ideas and work of Brookes and Zappas with the aim of establishing internationally rotating Olympic Games that would occur every four years. A quite brilliant innovation given that the original games took place every four years. Coubertin presented these ideas during the first <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Congress"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Olympic Congress</span></a> of the newly created International Olympic Committee. This meeting was held from 16 to 23 June 1894, at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Paris"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Sorbonne</span></a> University in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Paris</span></a>. On the last day of the Congress, it was decided that the first Olympic Games, to come under the auspices of the IOC, would take place in Athens in 1896. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">The IOC elected the Greek writer <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_Vikelas"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Demetrius Vikelas</span></a> </span></span>as its first president. Vikelas was known for translating Shakespeare into Greek and for opening the first Greek school in London. Vikelas’s wife Kalliope was at this time suffering mental problems and being treated in Paris, where he lived for 15 years and where Kalliope would die round about the time the Games were being held. Vikelas held the Olympic role briefly, resigning from the IOC after the games, to be replaced as a member by the Count Alexander Mercati, a golf playing Greek Royal, and as president by Coubertin.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And that’s how the games were hijacked by a smart rich Frenchman and turned into a copyright protected trading company, without paying a penny in royalties to the rightful owners of the idea. Just by placing a token literate Greek in a nominal position and awarding the first games to Athens. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The first IOC Games in Athens were a success, largely as a result of Greek Government funding, building a stadium and proper facilities, while hoping to recoup their outlay through ticket sales. Although the games ran at a loss, establishing a position that would visit the taxpayers paying for every subsequent games, the success of the games generated strong feeling in Greece that Athens should host the Olympic Games on a permanent basis. The IOC with its French leadership declined this request and promptly scheduled the next games for – wait – surely not – <i>Paris</i>. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Paris was not properly prepared as a host City and the experience almost killed off the Games. The tax payers of France were not stupid enough to underwrite the cost of a stadium and so the games went ahead without one. The next games of 1904 were in America and were even more of a misinterpretation of the Olympic ideal, featuring 650 athletes of which 580 were Americans.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But by now the games, the intellectual property of the Olympian ideal, had been removed from Greece and rebranded as something completely different. Was it less than the theft of a national artifact.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">When I visited Olympia in 1971 I was struck by how clearly the events the ruins display resembled today’s Olympic program. In terms of a business idea, the model that is the Olympic formula was clearly completed there. I was ten at the time and my first comment was, ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why do they not hold the Olympic games here.’</i> It seemed so obvious. Build a permanent centre here and every four years invite the worlds best to compete in the tradition that was devised in Olympia for their games.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Then there’s the issue of the name. Olympia is a place that started Olympic Games. Why does this current corporate behemoth known as the Olympic games not pay a royalty for the exploitation of an idea which belongs to Olympia. The structure, the idea, the spine of the events, the recognition of triumph, the sporting ethos, all of which the IOC claim as their Olympic Games, rely on a stolen set of ideas and benefits no one excepting corporate sponsors whose profits invariably arise from the tax payers in the host cities left paying bills for years after the corporate sponsors have paid out their executive bonuses.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Then there’s the Nazis. <b>Carl Diem </b>was a great admirer of De Coubertin. Diem was instrumental in winning the Olympics for Berlin in 36. However in 33 Hitler came to power and his take on the Olympics was as “<i>a project of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Jews</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemason"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Freemasons</span></a></i>." Diem expected him to cancel the Olympics, but Hitler's propaganda minister, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Joseph Goebbels</span></a>, convinced him that the games would be an excellent showcase for German organization and pride. At a March 1933 meeting, six weeks after taking power, Hitler informed Diem he would support the games. Six months later, after touring the construction sites for the sporting arenas, he told Diem that the German state would pay the bills. Diem in exchange did a bang up job of giving Hitler maximum value for money by introducing a new idea in promoting the games. <b>The Olympic Torch</b>, to be run around Germany to generate interest. Diem, originator of the Olympic flame worked closely with his Nazi paymasters, and in 45 with the Russian Army closing in on Berlin, returned to the Olympic stadium to address a crowd of thousands of Hitler youth, exhorting them to ‘fight to the death’. Which many of them did. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">In trying to understand why people support this heinous organisation and all that it represents I have devised a top ten list of reasons why the Olympics are great. If you are: </span></div>
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<li><span lang="EN-US">Royal or Pro Royal</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">An admirer of corporatism</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">An admirer of conformity</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A member of the armed forces</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A share holder in drug companies</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A profiteer in lowest common denominator shares</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">Riveted by the diving board</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">Mesmerized by hairy Bulgarians herniating in front of your very eyes</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">Can’t get enough of hairy Bulgarians herniating in front of your very eyes</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A lover of supersized Big Macs with fries</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: black;">Untroubled by <span style="color: black;">extraordinary and uncontained prestige visited on athletes for no more than athletic prowess</span></span> </span></li>
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<span lang="EN-US">I see the Olympics as a series of thefts. Starting with the name. I haven’t followed Olympics since I was 13. I was watching news coverage of the Munich Olympics when the Israeli team were taken hostage and I saw the picture of an athlete sunbathing. In the background was the masked gunman in the window behind which the hostages must have shaking with terror. But none of that interfered with the athletes focus in getting some relaxation time in before the next event. And that got me thinking. These games are not about sport at all. The sporting ethos that underpinned an ethical code between all the original participants is no longer, replaced now by a selfish journey to personal greatness. If this event was played out in Olympia - where criminals captured athletes and held them at knifepoint - I strongly suspect all the other Olympians would have stopped whatever they were doing to offer support to their fellow athletes. Or at the very least, stopped playing games while lives were being threatened. The context is the clue. In the context of terrible atrocity - the idea of prioritizing winning in games over compassionate concern reveals a total abscence of a sporting spirit.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">But these games are not about any of those ideals. They are no more than<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> a controlling device enabling a small group to direct profits for their own benefit </span>by playing on a lowest common denominator appeal - the sporting traditions devised in Olympia. These games – where guests can only pay with Visa and no other card, and only eat McDonalds and no other burger and only drink coke products – have nothing to do with sport. Entry to the grounds is equivalent to airport security with body scanners and no liquids allowed in.Visitors are warned to expect long delays being searched for entry.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Then there’s the bill. The Olympic charter places the costs of the event squarely in the hands of the tax payer. Should these games be like all previous games – and leave a behind a massive bill – then that cost is down to our tax dollars. <i style="color: #20124d;">Every dollar spent on these games is a dollar that wasn’t spent on education or policing, or establishing a working Health Service.</i> Every dollar spent paying back the huge bills come out of budgets for Policing, education and establishing a working Health service.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Just have a look at the bill Athens paid for the 2004 Olympics. $11 Billion. Didn’t cause them any problems so why should we worry.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And what do the lowest common denominator succubi get for their participation? Here’s my speculative top ten:</span></div>
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<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to sing God save the Queen and wave flags. </span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to cheer the Carl Deim torch running past their window. (An celebrate those Hitler youth going off to certain death.)</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to wonder whether that runner is really a man. </span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to admire the American Archer who honed his skills killing 300 pound bears.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to admire Olympian Cory Cognell, the American kill for fun hunter whose recreation is killing animals for fun and posing over their dead bodies with her beaming Kill Thrill grin. </span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to admire the Saudi flag being waved along with all that represents.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to enjoy all the free music by bands who aren’t being paid and who can never use the Olympic name to promote their participation.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to see Prince William carrying the flag, possibly even in his military uniform with the shiny buttons. </span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to watch Saudi Arabia play football against Yemen</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to hear the McDonalds out of tune whistle every three minutes</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US">A chance to see the BBC – who have no advertisements because you pay a TV license, advertising Visa/McDonalds/Coke and whoever else tells them to run their ads.</span></li>
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<span lang="EN-US">My home is being barricaded up even as I write. Swarms of little Olympic workers are swanning around with steel barriers, blocking the roads. The roads we pay huge amounts in Council tax to use are not ours to use at all for three days. Nor are the sidewalks. Metal barricades everywhere to hold back the teeming hordes who will descend to watch the bicycle riders whizz past. The trees that stood on the riverbank facing my house all disappeared in one brisk day of tree surgery last Month. I came out to enquire of the gang with chainsaws as I watched the trees that have stood here for longer than I have been alive coming down.<i> </i></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>‘For the Olympics mate. Clear shot for the camera.</i>”</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">“<i>But we need to get planning permission from the council to chop even a branch off a tree here. How can you remove every single tree from the riverbank without so much as a notice to the residents</i>”. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">“<i>Olympics mate. Its their call</i>.” </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">They own it all and we pay for it. That’s the Olympic spirit. Those able to travel will be out of the Country for the next Month. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">For the rest of us the McDonalds Olympics present a great opportunity to enjoy a big mac and coke, supersized, while participating in one of the greatest <i>‘rich taking from the poor’ </i>moments in modern history.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And they’ll be back to do it all over again in 4 years time.</span></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-51524091587074891162012-06-28T10:59:00.005+01:002014-07-21T18:36:08.129+01:00Sophie and Johann<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2UQqL-e0F2Rb2FkbhBjn-pnj8hQKoN06zwSkjhQhIXiriQ_9TFHL5QbLugeawm_l4pOOTG7WoMU02tUe69D6nkUs6zyLuEDT4hhD7PTJGIEsk5FUBBEBfnFjgh3NNroD1xdv3ayLzzwP/s1600/SophieScholl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2UQqL-e0F2Rb2FkbhBjn-pnj8hQKoN06zwSkjhQhIXiriQ_9TFHL5QbLugeawm_l4pOOTG7WoMU02tUe69D6nkUs6zyLuEDT4hhD7PTJGIEsk5FUBBEBfnFjgh3NNroD1xdv3ayLzzwP/s320/SophieScholl.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></div>
The story of <b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Sophie Scholl</span></b> has fascinated me for many years. Such courage and dignity in one so young and so lovely makes a refreshing alternative to the more plentiful examples of humanity without conscience.<br />
<br />
I was reading a page I made on <a href="http://celebritymemorials.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=425:sophie-scholl&catid=43:political-celebrities&Itemid=40" target="_blank">Celebrity memorials of Sophie</a> when two things struck me. Her final words as she faced the guillotine on that day in 1943, following what must have been cruel and terrifying interrogation by the Gestapo were<br />
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<i>"Such a fine sunny day and I have to go."</i><br />
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And linked to that page was the name <a href="http://celebritymemorials.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=426:johann-reichhart&catid=41:other-celebrities&Itemid=75" target="_blank">Johann Reichhar</a>t. The 8th generation German executioner, the worlds leading practioner of this dark art where he favoured the guillotine for its superior efficiency, ending over 3,000 lives by his own hand.<br />
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Sophie died a traitor and a criminal, sentenced to death for protesting the Nazi ways through membership of the White Rose. Johann was of course an upstanding member of the community and a first rate civil servant bound by duty to his employment.<br />
<br />
And yet, despite the dehumanising effects of mindless conformity to one repetitive task legitimized in the guise of employment, I couldn't help but wonder how Johann must have felt when he heard this beautiful 21 year old say those words before he placed her head on the brace and pressed the lever to end her life.<br />
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With the passage of time, Sophie's story lives on. The convicted traitor is shown for what she was, inspiring many millions to confidence in their own beliefs, while the duty bound civil servant doing his job and saluting the flag is revealed by the passage of time.<br />
<br />
Sophie and Johann who met briefly on 22 February 1943, joined forever in a moment in time that shows the best and worst of humanity.<br />
<br />
Here is their story told in song.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHnTSIUkcJE&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Sophie and Johann.</a></b><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-34838631292508705722012-04-13T14:18:00.011+01:002013-03-12T17:40:15.891+00:00Religions top 25.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://gnli.christianpost.com/video/how-to-respond-to-an-atheist-dr-erwin-lutzer-3421" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjABkXmCy7n8vtxSulmfN7w-t0LytguYydmyFEyUiV8Avktyxy0ur-NRn_YypD_ov2WflzqVr7e5Ssfi8VydbTlVtJgoHge7yyBcM1y6XI4dyKiADU1JxjCkzbIFfMAdoVRlzbrFwMnvVvW/s200/Picture+5%282%29.png" width="188" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>In honour of the estimable preacher and multiple doctorate awardee Erwin Lutzer, whose immaculately conceived</i> '21 day challenge'<i> converts atheists with flawless efficiency, I have been inspired to come up with my own</i> 25 day challenge<i>. Believers need spend just ten minutes each day researching each of the numerically listed blessings of Religion.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>The top 25 things which would not be possible without Religion.</b></span></div>
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1.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Female genital mutilation</span></a>.</div>
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2.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Male genital mutilation, also known euphemistically as ‘circumcision.’</div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
3.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;">Entrenched <a href="http://jezebel.com/5878017/calling-bullshit-on-religious-misogyny" target="_blank">misogyny</a>. The deliberate and systematic oppression of women through Religious direction.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
4.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>So called <a href="http://www.celebritymemorials.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=471:hina-saleem&catid=45:religious-celebrities&Itemid=83" target="_blank">honour killings.</a></div>
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5.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;"><a href="http://richarddawkins.net/articles/118-religion-39-s-real-child-abuse" target="_blank">Child abuse</a> - Instilling the terrifying notion of original sin and hell in defenseless children</span></div>
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6.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2001029/Child-brides-young-5-married-secret-middle-aged-men.html" target="_blank">Child brides.</a></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
7.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;">Elderly men sanctioned for having <a href="http://www.celebritymemorials.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=209:muhammad&catid=45:religious-celebrities&Itemid=83" target="_blank">sex with preteens</a> </span></div>
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8.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Elderly men sanctioned for having <a href="http://www.islamology.org/Overview/Women/Polygamy%20in%20Islam.htm" target="_blank">sex with multiple preteens</a> simultaneously.</div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
9.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">The <a href="http://www.celebritymemorials.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=418:soraya-manutchehr&catid=45:religious-celebrities&Itemid=83" target="_blank">stoning to death of women for adultery</a> based on the word of a male accuser.</span></div>
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10.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/abigailesman/2012/01/27/burqa-ban-comes-to-the-netherlands-finally/" target="_blank">burqa</a></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
11.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;">The <a href="http://www.3quarksdaily.com/.a/6a00d8341c562c53ef0168e708cbb6970c-popup" target="_blank">ignorant bearded unwashed rotten-toothed</a> impoverished vehicles of hate living for no higher purpose than to kill Kfirs.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
12.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Blasphemy laws that persecute any non believer. Historically including the most barbaric of ritual executions.</div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
13.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow; color: black;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/05/witchcraft-couple-jailed-for-life?INTCMP=SRCH" target="_blank">Exorcisms, including Witchcraft themes</a>, that leave children dead. Often including vicious sadistic beatings.</span></div>
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14.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The cynical exploitation of the most needy by the avaricious. Commonly practiced by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_involving_evangelical_Christians" target="_blank">Evangelicals in America</a>. </div>
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15.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Promoting sexual prejudice toward <a href="http://christianteens.about.com/od/whatthebiblesaysabout/f/masturbation.htm" target="_blank">masturbation</a> inviting dysfunctional sexual development</span>.</div>
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16.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Promoting views on <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/katineblog/2008/oct/13/sexandreligion" target="_blank">contraception at odds with prevailing wisdom</a> often with horrific consequences.</div>
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17.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;">Promoting a system of Church sanctioned child sex abuse so comprehensive that in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/7994705/No-Belgian-church-escaped-sex-abuse-finds-investigation.html" target="_blank">Belgium for instance, 100% of Catholic Churches</a> have recorded instances of sex abuse by Priests.</span></div>
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18.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Giving us the <a href="http://magdalenelaundriesabuse.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Magdalene Laundries</a> in Ireland, where unwed mothers were so mercilessly ruined.</div>
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19.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Attacking and retarding educational advances. Most recently Boko Haram take up the front line of the battle once dominated so convincingly by the Catholics</span>.</div>
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20.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> A<a href="http://cghr.rutgers.edu/projects/greek_genocide.html" target="_blank">ttacking and in some cases committing genocide</a> on ethnic groups in the name of God. Anatolia. Bosnia…..</div>
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21.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;">Seducing the weak minded and vulnerable into a mental position in which they surrender their opportunity to experience a full and meaningful life.</span></div>
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22.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> Disempowering individuals through guilt and blame into a position of submissive dependence in which lack of personal accountability makes them vulnerable to the irrational.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin: 0.1pt 0cm 0.1pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
23.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: yellow;">The practice of Slavery and trading of slaves by Christians and Muslims.</span></div>
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24.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Promoting a ‘<i>he who is not for me is against me’</i> premise which has provided the impetus for countless wars since the advent of Religion.</div>
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25.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="background-color: yellow;">Normalising <a href="http://thepulpit.freedomblogging.com/files/2010/12/images.jpeg" target="_blank">hypocrisy</a> and presenting the ridiculous as fact.</span><br />
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<i>And just in case there's room left, the bonus point is:</i></div>
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26. Encouraging, often requiring, <a href="http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2012/news/120213/rick-santorum-440.jpg" target="_blank">homophobic prejudice</a> and persecution.<br />
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<a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/ebp/index.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSlDQ0P3oSGaw5TH5ReyDnRxa1OF4FY7QS7q5cZQyBnE91JtFDLbqWE6f8SAafIGgNELyGzKMmEJLxk39ViplDdD0LbcQhb4eeWVVsp_NqNfAQyt71H2rQI-Iuc3WYNvOxG2oaAJl0lsbj/s400/ebpamaz.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-30100731038764882102012-03-15T07:52:00.001+00:002013-03-18T09:15:51.899+00:00Two inmates<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The United States Penitentiary in Tucson Arizona has two notable inmates serving life imprisonment.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1ETCaZA79MAjf-sylVMVehbM0n57R_FlgWYHtGI8-yYg5FqZuI9_HxC7-CqGf7tBkHB2qrIkPZaE2P7jry8oy-OLfxcC8kXCpV5UN_iEWVqR8XT0_FeDYN7Qw06Wyqi66bHzYcmDUJEF/s1600/170px-Steven_Dale_Green_shotgun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1ETCaZA79MAjf-sylVMVehbM0n57R_FlgWYHtGI8-yYg5FqZuI9_HxC7-CqGf7tBkHB2qrIkPZaE2P7jry8oy-OLfxcC8kXCpV5UN_iEWVqR8XT0_FeDYN7Qw06Wyqi66bHzYcmDUJEF/s200/170px-Steven_Dale_Green_shotgun.jpg" width="166" /></a></div>
One of those is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Dale_Green#Steven_Dale_Green" style="background-color: yellow;" target="_blank">Steven Green</a><span style="background-color: yellow;">,</span> soldier with the 101st, serving in Iraq when he raped and killed 14 year old Abeer Hamza in front of her family before killing them too. Six-year-old sister Hadeel, her father, Qassim Hamza Rasheed, and her mother, Fakhriya Taha Muhasen. <br />
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Steven was arrested in the US, pleaded not guilty, and although Kentucky, where he was tried, has the death penalty, his crimes were not warranted serious enough for the maximum tariff. He was sentenced instead to Life imprisonment.<br />
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In his first interview Green was quoted as saying <i>"I didn't think of Iraqis as humans"</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5TE5bwkwVCf2ZgjNvFEmePr99aSZ41O3tK7XW_UxAGU5RGzlJJTfFFHaDm70iSW7Gq8oO0OmeNL4ltu_AttMJX4KGq06ubRMlCJw4GK74TJPDlS4YSHPXYzuEVGcSrv2tbh9GBdh3aL2/s1600/Leonardpickard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT5TE5bwkwVCf2ZgjNvFEmePr99aSZ41O3tK7XW_UxAGU5RGzlJJTfFFHaDm70iSW7Gq8oO0OmeNL4ltu_AttMJX4KGq06ubRMlCJw4GK74TJPDlS4YSHPXYzuEVGcSrv2tbh9GBdh3aL2/s200/Leonardpickard.jpg" width="171" /></a></div>
The second notable inmate in Tucsons State Penitentiary is<span style="background-color: yellow;"> </span><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard" style="background-color: yellow;" target="_blank">William Leonard Pickard</a><span style="background-color: yellow;">.</span> </b>Wiliam, a marathon runner, now 67, was found guilty of conspiring to manufacture, distribute and dispense ten grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD); and received two life sentences.<br />
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One guy making recreational drugs is on equal punishment terms with a child rapist murderer?<br />
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How much better would the world and America be if: <br />
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No more American soldiers were sent on Robber class Jihads to foreign countries.<br />
And:<br />
All drugs were decriminalized with production and supply being met by professional Government agency.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGo9ZHRCP5eRe3_pfmy1H03CMEekDPh0u71mNOe2cCrlJi7oIeJKOLlUNqbwgLWiXMpBnc45WCAEPAWNc1xIeAsR1B5HLBK2FdqfiVbbgfmn2TvJG-bZ7KPmxWEUcM40IzZ5r1sqrU6Bb/s1600/TCP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGo9ZHRCP5eRe3_pfmy1H03CMEekDPh0u71mNOe2cCrlJi7oIeJKOLlUNqbwgLWiXMpBnc45WCAEPAWNc1xIeAsR1B5HLBK2FdqfiVbbgfmn2TvJG-bZ7KPmxWEUcM40IzZ5r1sqrU6Bb/s1600/TCP.jpg" /></a></div>
And in the meanwhile. Shame on America for wasting life in this way. <b><span style="background-color: yellow;">Free William Pickard.</span></b> </div>
Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-4511365154648734302012-01-31T09:59:00.007+00:002013-03-18T16:11:44.976+00:00Trolling Christards.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Emerging technology presents new challenges for the social conventions governing the ever increasing amount of time we spend interacting socially. Now that Facebook lets us friend people we don't know and participate in their conversations with an informal ease never previously available for complete strangers to express their opinions, the distance which divides us is brought into sharp focus, as is the importance of maintaining protocols of conduct without which, pointless argument ensues.<br />
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As the mores of social networking interaction develop, so new words arise. One of these is '<b>troll</b>'. A troll is someone who posts inflammatory, off-topic, self serving messages.<br />
The second is '<b>Christard</b>.' A Christard is a Christain devout to the point of mental retardation, incapable of rational thought and inflexibly drawn to delusional belief.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx3x1XxlhyEjf0N1jYHteqARWuboXhX4XA8TWzKgfahbP0-LaZdwxv1ehJCdvJM0crWCGmu1x8rSrmREZUm-X-BJUBQoc43xlSMDGJiJPoB0jgbFLq-QE5EcW1tZpWH9JIp7bc64gTEaoq/s1600/frik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx3x1XxlhyEjf0N1jYHteqARWuboXhX4XA8TWzKgfahbP0-LaZdwxv1ehJCdvJM0crWCGmu1x8rSrmREZUm-X-BJUBQoc43xlSMDGJiJPoB0jgbFLq-QE5EcW1tZpWH9JIp7bc64gTEaoq/s200/frik.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>
The young Mr. Zuckerberg in all his prescient wisdom contrived two alternatives for the Troll and the Christard. The <b>Unfriend</b> and the <b>Block</b> option, which I was drawn to yesterday when a South African Christard troll with an uncanny resemblance to the famous silver bearded horse-riding dullard Christard <i>Eugene Terreblanche</i>, took exception to my comment that <b>Leviticus</b>, that odious collection of hateful instruction from the Bible, had its origins in the authors homosexual urge, based on the observation <span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><i>"Can there be any more plausible explanation for this need to kill homosexuals than the inner conflict with that very urge?" </i></span><br />
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">My troll christard correspondent began by name calling. <i>Poep hal </i>(<i>South African for an asshole, often used in a derisory context with homosexuals</i>) and before long addressed me as an <i>idiot who was spouting pro gay rhetoric</i>, for which I was told I would go to hell, and he would help put me out of my misery. </span><br />
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><span style="background-color: yellow;">My reply to which follows:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;">"</span></span><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text" style="color: #444444;">John, you have labelled me an idiot, which is your right to assume, but to presume I am in 'misery' is a step too far. You have no insight into my emotional state and as is the case with much of what you have written here, presuming my 'misery' is unreliable. Leviticus was gay. Fact. I am not made miserable by this information. Quite the contrary - unlike every Christian believer I am not intolerant of those who do not conform to my blind-faith based belief and would more readily extend the words of friendly banter than the barbs and arrows of outrageous prejudiced toxic-intolerance that characterises both your words here as well as your wildly exposed, ridiculous belief system with its inherent hateful message of condemn and convert - if your not for me your against me and if your against me you go to hell for all eternity - whose legacy is the greatest scourge to have visited mans evolutionary progress through the ages."</span><br />
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<i><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">What followed was a ream of standard Christian dogma on blasphemy with the assurance that Hell follows that kind of talk and that </span><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">it was a "Good idea not to mock others' belief systems and worldviews." </span></i><br />
<i><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"> </span><span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"> </span> </i><br />
<div style="background-color: yellow; color: black;">
To which my reply was:</div>
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"></span> <br />
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">"John, I think you have identified the core issue. The position we take in respect of beliefs that we do not agree with. I disagree with your view that it is <i>'not a good idea'</i>. I think it is an <b>essential</b> part of defining ones own position in the same way that remaining silent in the face of evil actions makes you complicit in that conduct. </span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><br />
Lets examine the arguments merits using the example of <b>pedophilia</b>. Those who allow the sexual attraction toward young children to direct their belief systems and worldviews. I disagree with their views. I feel so strongly that their way, their choices in respect of what they believe, their worldviews and how that act in accordance with those beliefs, is so harmful and at so much at odds with my own belief in a kind and generous, caring model of a wonderful world, that I will stop at nothing to '<b>mock</b> and <b>offend</b>' their beliefs. </span></div>
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><br />
Take <b>Islam</b>. A belief system in which a polygamous prophet slaughtered thousands with his own hand, whilst positioning women as chattels, and happily establishing through his own marriage that sex with a 9 year old is appropriate for a man of 52. This conduct and all that this belief system represents exists at odds with my belief in a kind, caring, sharing wonderful world. Therefore I feel it is not just a good idea to mock this barbaric belief system and the worldviews it presents, but, for anyone with double figure IQ, an ethical responsibility. </span></div>
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<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">Allowed untouched by the voice and action of reasoned argument, this barbarism in the guise of religious belief will return man to the dark ages. One has to look no further than that most perfect of Islamic sects, <b>Boko Haram</b>, and their right-on-the money understanding that religion can only survive in the absence of education. </span></div>
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<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">Religion without suspension of rational thought, cannot exist. It relies on the unnatural shutting down of rational thought process, in a process called blind faith which might be better named, self-lobotomy. This belief that religious subjugation, the blind faith avenue to a set of polarisingly divisive conditions determining a heaven for the willing and a hell for the rest, always ends in the same place.</span></div>
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<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><br />
Which brings us to why I, and others like me, feel it is a responsibility to ‘<b>mock</b>’ world views that threaten the survival of our species. The arguments in support of this are widely known to anyone willing to invest even basic research into the subject. Clearly, Christian belief allowed to run unchecked will end the world as we know it in the Armageddon nuclear explosion that hundreds of millions of Christians adamantly believe will happen in their lifetimes, and who will support the system of warmongery that best ensures this so called prophecy. </span></div>
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<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">Because I believe the submission to ignorance in the stead of reason enables any form of sheeplike exploitation leading to any form of dreadful conduct, as has been shown to be the case over and over and over again, from Bush the Christian who killed a hundred thousand Muslims to make his daddy proud and because God told him to, to any number of similar instances of what happens when you allow blind faith to be your guide. You become blind to reason and become capable of any form of irrational interpretation for which you have a built in excuse for failure, without any personal accountability. This level of toxic thought, given the widespread extent to which it has taken a hold, threatens the survival of the planet and the existence of mankind. Religious belief more than any other single cause is the one most likely to lead to mans extinction. Like a fungus growing on the lake of life, its spread kills off the light for all the other organisms in the lake, until, allowed to spread unchecked, the entire surface of the lake is clogged with this suffocating fungus and the lakes life ends. You and your beliefs are that spreading fungus.</span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><br />
Despite knowing many Christians, and knowing how offended and aggressive they become having their world views challenged and mocked, I feel to do any less would make me complicit in the style of mental-sloth which Christianity demands, being as dangerous as it is unattractive.<br />
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I am sure you are a perfectly decent fellow, and that calling me a ‘<b>poep hall</b>’ and an idiot who <i>‘promotes homosexuality’</i> is in no way reflective of your usual social etiquette, but simply the demonstration of a thoroughly common reaction to criticism of Religious belief. </span></div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><br />
My replies have not been personal in any way, which is the point of writing here. It is not personal. There is no call for rudeness or attacks on the person. It is an issue we discuss, in which we hold differing views. The main difference between us is that my belief system, which is essentially <i>strive for a kind caring sharing world that takes care of everyone</i>, does not threaten your existence in any way. I have no provision for an imaginary ‘hell or heaven’ consequence and my need to convince you of how right I am is non-existent. Your views, the Christian doctrine, however are threatening, condemnatory and dangerous, in light of which, remaining silent would make me complicit in, at the very least, conspiracy to commit extinction."</span></div>
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text">The friendship ended soon after, with a push of the block button, but still the trolling Christard instinct demanded he write to another of the correspondents on the thread, my friend Sir Orpington of Hamburg, serving him with the HELL card and with this lovely reminder for the <b>coward</b> who blocked him because he<i> could not withstand the replies</i>. </span><br />
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"If you're brave enough, or stupid enough, mock on. After all you have nothing to fear do you, if he's that "silly old imaginary bloke in the sky"? <b>H</b>e states clearly a number of times that it is not <b>H</b>is desire that any should perish. <b>H</b>e's not waiting to whack you over the head, or worse, so that <b>H</b>e can ship you off to Hell. <b>H</b>e loves every person whom <b>H</b>e created, including you, so much, that he sent <b>H</b>is Son, Jesus to die on the cross, as a propitiation for everyone's sin, so that they need not die a second (eternal) death.<br />
<b>H</b>e is a Holy God and cannot accept, or be in the presence of sin. At the time when <b>H</b>e governed over Israel directly, a pure lamb had to be sacrificed so that <b>H</b>e could forgive the sin of the perpetrator."</div>
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This style of content totaled over 6,000 words on one Facebook thread. <br />
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A Psychiatrist friend who read Mr. Langermans 6,000 word troll session, commented <b><i>"patients spouting this sort of delusional nonsense are immediate candidates for 48 hours observation on a lockup ward."</i></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/ebp/index.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_KNPQX9Cq5HvtIe1ruygFdTNLwT5UinUrbUKHb_BPTV1ZMlW2ImdmlvDtfvzRUoImBM4fx-G0uLq6WINxRBylSx8_WabASDj9sI1cU4m4wGCUrb9Q3DCplqXg6UyrY-SnZrm-1sN9RgHc/s400/ebpamaz.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-81441872677123801792012-01-17T16:21:00.009+00:002014-07-21T18:35:33.894+01:00My Sun story.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>With <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084580/Leveson-Inquiry-David-Cameron-summoned-Kelvin-Mackenzie-gives-evidence.html" target="_blank">Kelvin Mackenzie</a> giving evidence to the Leveson enquiry, I am reminded of a fabulous memory of when I tried to impress a bar maid by making up a story in the Sun, which Kelvin Mackenzie paid for and published. Here is the story which I call; </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">The Sun, the truth and Melanie.</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In 1993 I had a weekly gig at the Albany pub in Thames Ditton, a popular riverside venue opposite Hampton Court Palace in Surrey where, every Saturday night from 9, I would perform two fifty minute sets of popular songs to a room filled with seasoned music loving drinkers, one of which was a great friend of mine, Mike Rick. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Mike was an American, exactly the same age as myself, we were born 15 days apart, who once played drums with <b>Steppenwolf</b> and worked as a Chippendale in Los Angeles before arriving in Surrey a few years previously. Mike was a popular local character, tall, blond haired blue eyed with a six-pack, which he would display at any given opportunity, and that year he attended every one of my 280 gigs in London and surrounds. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">With two young children to support, Mike had turned his back on his acting and modeling career to set up a Photo agency, the Mike Rick Agency (MRA) through which he would sell any manner of photo to any manner of buyer.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">One Monday night on a rare night off from work, I arranged to meet Mike for a pub meal at the Albany, where landlady Denieze ran a quite outstanding kitchen offering home cooked traditional pub meals at the shortest of notice. While I waited at the bar for Mikes arrival I looked through the pile of the previous days papers. A copy of the <b>News of the World</b> had dedicated its entire front page to the story of a wife swapping arrangement gone wrong. I read the story to learn that the two couples, who were local to the area, were in court after one of the men, a serving police officer, had attempted to murder his wife following her unsanctioned meeting with the husband of the other. Pretty standard NOTW fare.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Behind the bar that night was the buxomly attractive Melanie. A flirtatious 19 year old who lived in one of the neighboring roads, and always worked on the nights I performed. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It was a quiet Monday in the bar and so Melanie joined us in conversation, remarking on the NOTW story about the wife swapping couples. The conversation led to the subject of chequebook journalism and soon after that, I explained to Melanie that ‘<i>As long as you identify the demand for a story, you can make up more or less anything and the tabloids will print it</i>.’</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Incredulously Melanie asked <i>"How does that work then. Surely they can’t print made up stories."</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">“How it works is simple supply and demand. You look at what the demand is for. For instance, looking at yesterday’s papers, they all have a wife-swapping story. They will want more stories on that same subject. So if you supply a new wife swapping story, they will almost certainly print it.”</span></i></span></span><br />
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<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">“Your making that up"</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> said </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Melanie</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. <i>“They can’t run made up stories."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">A customer arrived, demanding </span><span lang="EN-US">Melanie</span><span lang="EN-US">’s pint pulling attention and once she left my conversation with Mike turned to a dare. <i>“I’ll bet you I can make up a story about wife swapping and get the Sun to run it, and then show it to Melanie to demonstrate how easy it is to make up stories.”</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>“You write it up and I’ll sell it in</i>" was Mikes reply.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Soon after finishing our meal I went home and started to write my Sun piece. 1,000 words, telling the story of a couple, who lived in Surbiton, which seemed to me a prime location for this sort of suburban past time. Because the current story was about wife swapping gone bad I decided to make my one provocatively upbeat. My characters would be bored with their long marriage and turn to wife swapping for a bit of fun and then find that it strengthened their marriage and both loved the arrangement, creating an easy opportunity and an open invitation for some editorial moralizing on the tale, as is so integral in a good tabloid story. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The story wrote itself and half an hour after starting I called Mike to read it to him on the phone. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>‘That’s right on the money’</i> was his reply.<i> ‘Now all we need are two actors for the photo shoot. They wont run the story without pictures, but with a photo shoot I reckon I will get 2 grand from them, so we could use that to pay actors.’</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">My friend Ken, who I often did duo gigs with and is a handsome West Indian origin musician, immediately sprang to mind. He was single and game for a laugh and would be grateful for a nice pay day. I called him. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>“Ken, I have a possible gig for you. Will take you one hour and pay you one thousand pounds. Interested?”</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">“What’s involved..”</span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">“Its an acting gig for a Sun story that I am making up to prove a point to the barmaid at the Albany. You come round to Mikes tomorrow. I have a script. Read the script and recite it. In a nutshell, you will be a married man who does a bit of wife swapping. You love it and it has done wonders for your marriage. They take a photo or two of you and your wife and that’s it. About a Month later they pay the bill and you get a thousand pounds.”</span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">“What time shall I be there”</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> asked Ken.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">As his wife for the purposes of my story I asked another musician I knew who would appreciate a four figure payday for a one hour photo-shoot, Audrienne. Her reply to my request was <i>“Where do I sign.”</i> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Tuesday morning arrived and at ten o clock Mike made the call to the Sun Newsdesk, outlining the story on offer and negotiating the £2,000 charge plus his usual agents fee. He called me straight after to confirm the sale and that the journalist and photographer were scheduled for 2 pm for the photoshoot and interview at his home in East Molesey. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Ken and Audrienne showed up at 1.30, thrilled to the bone. <i>"I've never made a thousand pounds an hour before"</i> said Ken. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Almost exactly at 2 o clock a very polite young pair from the Sun arrived, a photographer and a journalist, who read my two page story, which was of course credited to Ken, before clicking some posed pictures of Ken and Audrienne. Ken wore a suit for the occasion and Audrienne dressed up as well, looking very much the part of the couple from Surbiton. The Sun pair left at three, one hours work for my actors as promised.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">On Wednesday morning I stopped by the Newsagent on my way for morning coffee and picked up a copy of the Sun. The story was featured as a double page center spread. A fetching picture of Ken and Audrienne and my 1,000 word story edited down somewhat, but more or less exactly as I had written it. As a cherry on the top, on the sidebar of the spread was a comment by Sun Agony Aunt Deirdre Sanders, commenting that although wife swapping had worked for this couple, they were ‘lucky to escape disaster.’ She urged readers not to try it at home, or in the schoolyard.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I enjoyed a wonderful sense of elation that morning as I drank my cappuccino whilst reading a story I had made up just 48 hours previously being presented as news in a National paper read by some 9 Million people. My first thought was, all that cost them was £2,000 plus a few expenses and they filled two entire pages.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">That night I went to the Albany to claim my gloating prize from young Melanie.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">“<i>Melanie, do you remember our conversation on Monday about making up stories in the paper”</i> I asked. <i>“Yes, you told me papers make up stories”</i> she reminded me accusingly.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>“Have you see today’s Sun”</i> I inquired. <i>“No, why should I have”</i> she replied. With a flourish I opened a copy of the Sun to the center page spread and placed it in front of her. She looked down and started reading. <i>“A wife-swapping story. What’s your point" </i>she asked<i>.</i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">“It’s a made up story. I made it up on Monday after we spoke" </span></i><span lang="EN-US">I said</span><i><span lang="EN-US">, </span></i><span lang="EN-US">a little taken aback that she hadn't spotted the obvious.<i> "And here it is appearing as a true story on Wednesday in the Sun.”</i> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">A perplexed expression descended across her face. She scanned the article and found what she was looking for. <i>“Your making it up. It has the name of the journalist with the story and its not you.</i>” </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>“Well, that’s correct, its not my name on the story, but I did write it, and look at who that is in the picture"</i>. Ken had played in the Albany many times and Melanie knew Ken. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>“Why am I looking at this picture”</i> she asked. <i>"Don’t you recognize who that is”</i>. She looked again. <i>”Its Phil Jefferson”</i> she replied, reading the name I had made up for Ken. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">“Does that not look to you like Ken”</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> I inquired. She looked again. <i>“Yes, it looks a bit like Ken, but this guy is Phil Jefferson, look at the name on the picture”</i>.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Melanie was adamant and would accept none of my attempts to convince her, leaving me with the assurance that the picture of Ken was definitely Phil Jefferson because <i>‘There is no smoke without fire.’ </i></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I had set out to demonstrate to a young lady how chequebook journalism follows a supply and demand model placing very little reliance on truth, and although I had failed to convince her, I had succeeded in entertaining an audience of 9 Million along the way, given two musical friends a £1,000 an hour pay day while earning for myself an important lesson. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">My truth was that I had made up a story and seen it published to a huge audience. Melanie's truth is that some fellow named Phil Jefferson and his wife Terri had tried wife-swapping and the Sun had published their story, which, for some strange reason the musician had tried to pretend he had invented. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> The overall truth, the one on which tabloid journalism depends, is that you can never overestimate the public stupidity. </span></span></span></div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-47967527998847349242011-12-22T11:49:00.004+00:002013-03-20T06:39:35.120+00:002011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sjtKy8oDxigDqnODxijdHoyWdIlRiAhxLOKcjPV4qZBiX84YmbfVPN_Lc1PyBQBwZW19wv5AA_ib_bLEX1emEa5YuslCJgjcUhkbpTagkKjsBf6qAF-Pl0KNl4y_Vdpq1Ttx5CPNI2PB/s1600/andrew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sjtKy8oDxigDqnODxijdHoyWdIlRiAhxLOKcjPV4qZBiX84YmbfVPN_Lc1PyBQBwZW19wv5AA_ib_bLEX1emEa5YuslCJgjcUhkbpTagkKjsBf6qAF-Pl0KNl4y_Vdpq1Ttx5CPNI2PB/s200/andrew.jpg" width="156" /></a></div>
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2011 has been an interesting year. Here are a few of the highlights of my year in the form of seven items of interest:</div>
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1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>After many years of effort, 2011 was the year my book <a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/ebp/index.html" target="_blank">The Emergency Bouzouki player</a> was published. <a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/ebp/index.html"></a></div>
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2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>The Emergency Bouzouki player was edited by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John Oakley-Smith</b>, who I first met as a young musician growing up in South Africa. A tremendously influential intellect and musical artiste, working on the book has given me the opportunity to re-release one of his wonderful songs from his 70’s album ‘Matinees on Saturdays’ well known to everyone of my generation in South Africa. Here is ‘<a href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/johnoakleysmith" target="_blank">The Lady from the Odeon’ written and performed by John Oakley-Smith</a> as a digital download. <a href="http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/johnoakleysmith"></a></div>
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3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Cate Mackenzie</b> is a Love coach and a fabulously vibrant personality who I had the pleasure of recording with this year, releasing her CD the <a href="http://catemackenzie.com/" target="_blank">‘Open your heart’ meditation</a>, which features my new age music. </div>
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4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">J</b>ojo Alves and I used to do duo gigs in South Africa over 30 years ago. He was an amazing guitarist then and this year saw the release of a three year project, which I executive produced, of his new guitar style called ‘six on seven’. A two handed guitar style. Here is the <a href="http://jojoalves.com/guitar.html" target="_blank">introduction to the 2 neck guitar </a>and here is the YouTube video of the '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C8kA0VI1Qw" target="_blank">Warrior Waltz</a>' <span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C8kA0VI1Qw"></a></span></div>
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5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>My 2009 album of meditation music written with Hugh Burns <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fables-of-Fabulous-Animals-ebook/dp/B006FPFDT2">Angels and Unicorns </a> has been my best selling album this year and is well worth a listen.<br />
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Wishing you all of the best for 2012.</div>
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-72387660601039219412011-12-03T11:34:00.004+00:002013-03-20T06:44:05.893+00:00Religion. Whats not to love about it.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTOGqbSxCL-um4fMTWkC1h915GMOnYoIWnlSPNBzpp7jVb2tk_6EY-imeRA894kVCbpCmZGFtOuTmONpduYZcT79zARv90qfCxatdoh5L0lM2OerSImOiWYU9GFyuRfcCnpjHBqiPx1dy/s1600/375193_227801527290312_208877045849427_540259_784716317_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTOGqbSxCL-um4fMTWkC1h915GMOnYoIWnlSPNBzpp7jVb2tk_6EY-imeRA894kVCbpCmZGFtOuTmONpduYZcT79zARv90qfCxatdoh5L0lM2OerSImOiWYU9GFyuRfcCnpjHBqiPx1dy/s200/375193_227801527290312_208877045849427_540259_784716317_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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As Mark Twain observed<br />
"<i>religion began when the first conman met the first fool</i>."<br />
All religious belief relies on the principle of blind faith to sustain dependence on that which any intelligently designed rationale knows as an entirely ridiculous proposition. Even attempting to debate this subject is ridiculous.<br />
<br />
<i>The Earth is 6,000 years old. Err? </i></div>
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Unfortunately, if statistics are to be believed some 50% of Americans really are that dumb.<i> </i><br />
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<i>For those that know, no explanation is necessary and for those who don't, no explanation is possible. </i><br />
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<b><i>Them that know, know that they know, them that don't know. They don't know they don't know.</i></b><br />
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An argument that can be used equally well from both sides of the fence. Those denying the theory of gravity could use this logic just as efficiently as those who believe that gravity exists. <br />
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Ultimately the most reliable truth of our age is that <i>the truth is what you choose to believe</i>. Anyone so lacking in rational thought as to believe the Earth is 6,000 years old (half of Americans) and that they are so self-important every moment of their lives has been carefully thought out to the most minute detail by an all seeing all powerful god who so loved his 7 day creation that he gave them Syphilis, malaria, cancer, genital mutilation, gigantism, obesity, dwarfism and a whole host of other demonstrations of his loving benevolence, deserves to discover life after death, however improbable this outcome may be.<br />
<br />
Preaching to the converted is pretty much a waste of time beyond light relief, and that is the point of this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Religion-Whats-not-to-love-about-it/145424502227138">page</a>. Fun. Religion is the single most destructive of mans inventions and one day, hopefully soon, the overt practice and recruitment oriented advertisement of religious belief will become illegal. <br />
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Certainly the targeted abuse of children in the early capture of their vulnerable young minds is a heinous offense which should be stopped IMMEDIATELY, being no less than a cynical and malicious child-abuse hate crime. What is wrong with teaching children a compassionate kindness based regard for all other living creatures without the divisive corrosive malevolence which is the lifeblood of all religion.<br />
<br />
Religion. Whats not to love about it.<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Religion-Whats-not-to-love-about-it/145424502227138">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Religion-Whats-not-to-love-about-it/ </a>Fun fun fun.</div>
Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-42696306777254619752011-10-25T19:27:00.007+01:002013-03-20T06:42:49.423+00:00Mad dog killed in desert<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW8_dj17tSJBbq6wFMr1phrjtaoKuHEqx4f1IUqB5sU9PhsCXVBhcSgt5tz0CwlkkS86RnGNH9Twr0XMcUEBZKnU_Uq6FbhJgvu5lQYuvzd9bJCL0QnUxJK6vJ7izX0jBkq9qLzZkKc2iC/s1600/00%252B00%252B00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW8_dj17tSJBbq6wFMr1phrjtaoKuHEqx4f1IUqB5sU9PhsCXVBhcSgt5tz0CwlkkS86RnGNH9Twr0XMcUEBZKnU_Uq6FbhJgvu5lQYuvzd9bJCL0QnUxJK6vJ7izX0jBkq9qLzZkKc2iC/s200/00%252B00%252B00.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
When Paul Simon said <i>'I don't believe what I read in the papers - they're just out to capture my dime'</i> he was observing the cynical commercial motivation affecting factual news reporting. Since then the relationship between mainstream news and truthful, balanced fact reporting has turned considerably worse, as news media become more than ever, the delivery needle for injecting Government designed public opinion into the heart of the majority.<br />
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No news event demonstrates the corrupt nature of press formulating public opinion more succinctly than the decision to demonize and assassinate Gaddafi. From the moment they failed to 'declare war' while sending in waves of bombers to kill many women and children in pursuit of their one clear agenda, to kill Gaddafi, it was clear to anyone aware of US foreign policy and its controlling use of media that this decision was made before the first wave of bombs fell on the first Libyan kid and that media did not in any way offer reliable reporting of the facts. I have never been more embarrassed by the state of world journalism than I am by the events surrounding the assassination of Gaddafi.<br />
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I was reminded at the time when Gaddafi was being so severely bombed, of the way it was for the ANC in the 70's and 80's, when they may have buckled under the weight of Reagan's American and Thatchers British opprobrium encouraging the mighty bombs of the SADF, were it not for the significant and vital assistance offered to them by Gaddafi, the terrorist sponsor, without whose aid Mandela might still be in an Apartheid jail. <br />
<br />
Unquestionably the list of things that worked out rather well during Gaddafi's leadership tenure, like raising Libya from the poorest Country in the world to the highest in Africa's '<b>Human Development Index'</b> have either been revised or ignored. The demonisation is so complete that I was told off by an intelligent friend (Lisa) for speaking up for a man '<i>who used chemical weapons to genocide his own people.'</i> People who know little or nothing about Libya suddenly knew everything about why Gaddafi was a monster who had to be killed because he was a 'Mad Dog'. <br />
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I am particularly offended by the blanket postering of his gruesome corpse over every front page in the World - force feeding an image to children without considering parental warnings commonly associated with images of such a damaging and offensive nature - for one reason. To render the name and the memory of Gaddafi beyond redemption. No chance of any Gaddafi heir resurfacing in Libya. No chance of remembering him in any way beyond that bloodied pulp. And then there is this business of leaving his bloodied corpse to ROT in public display until the stench of his decomposing flesh required visitors wearing a mask to stop themselves heaving - when Muslim tradition demands - and he himself requested in his will - that a Muslim be buried as soon as possible (Usually within 24 hours.) As if even his Muslim identity had to be destroyed. This is pretty shabby behavior on a number of levels.<br />
<br />
Whatever atrocities may or may not be associated with Gaddafi's 42 years in office, those responsible for his killing- the NATO controllers and their payroll - are in my book - destined for far worse.<br />
Now that they seemingly have got away with the whole thing - with nary a voice being raised in asking - where was the reporting of this war where so many died - and so many children died.<br />
The basic questions that we might have been interested in knowing more about:<br />
<br />
<i> Who financed the rebels. How were they financed. What deal was done in exchange for this financing. Who are these rebels. Who paid for the Toyota 4 X 4's. Who did the mechanical work mounting all those weapons on those 4 X 4's? How many British bombs were dropped. How much UK taxpayer money was spent bombing Libya. How many children did our bombs kill. How do our RAF pilots feel about dropping bombs on children. How many schools and hospitals were flattened. Who is negotiating the Oil contracts now. Who is negotiating the reconstruction work? What happened to Gaddafi's plan to shift the oil pricing away from dollars to a Gold standard? What happened to the remains of his grandchild who we blew up in Tripoli.</i><br />
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None of which I expect to hear too much about. <b>'Mad dog killed in the desert'</b> is the only story they're selling. <br />
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Now that we have touched this new low in reporting and blind acceptance, we can expect to see a lot more of this media invention leading to State sponsored assassination. We are all the poorer for the 1% invading Libya, no matter how much they needed the money.</div>
Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-5646036067028787822011-10-12T11:44:00.007+01:002013-03-17T14:57:20.880+00:00Wealth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Mah<span style="font-size: small;">atma Gandhi <span style="font-size: small;">observed,</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<h5 class="uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent">"All
amassing of wealth or hoarding of wealth above and beyond one's
legitimate need is theft. There would be no occasion for theft and no
thieves if there was wise regulation of wealth and social justice."</span></span></span></span></i></h5>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">With ever increasing numbers falling below the poverty line, it is interesting to see the extent to which extreme wealth is concentrated more than ever in the hands of a small minority.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Possibly 1% of the Earth own the same amount as the remaining 99%. Are these events connected. Does the accumulation of this extraordinary wealth, controlled by so few, have a bearing on the extreme poverty of so many and in economic terms, is there a link between the numeric imbalance between the changing fortunes in either camp?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And what of the opportunities control of this extreme wealth represents.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTo7o-2dS4HThhn9sZBgs5LRvqY5Y0EEc8FCeMiycUaYSbcPEdxRmA0_KsxCyiQF5vBDfP0Y3gf-3h-kC51VZK1ZhH4YoCz-xHf7uSqBY28Lirs-ED8TXI8fhOux-Rt53nO_D64GnnmM_B/s1600/article-1346375-0CB76033000005DC-909_964x480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTo7o-2dS4HThhn9sZBgs5LRvqY5Y0EEc8FCeMiycUaYSbcPEdxRmA0_KsxCyiQF5vBDfP0Y3gf-3h-kC51VZK1ZhH4YoCz-xHf7uSqBY28Lirs-ED8TXI8fhOux-Rt53nO_D64GnnmM_B/s400/article-1346375-0CB76033000005DC-909_964x480.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Consider <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukesh_Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</a>. India's richest man and the 4th richest in the World. He has a new boat coming. <a href="http://schlicks.com/2011/03/17/mukesh-ambanis-yacht/">The YACHT</a>. And of course there is his house overlooking the poor people, where his wife and three children have some 440,000 square feet of space to be waited on by their 600 staff. <a href="http://schlicks.com/2010/11/02/the-worlds-first-1-billion-home/">The HOUSE</a>. Ambani sold his London Apartment for some £140 Million. The London <a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23865528-londons-pound-140m-flat.do">APARTMENT</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Obscene wealth?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">How about the Saudi Defense minister, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Sultan_bin_Abdul_Aziz">Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz</a>. Obviously ministerial salaries in Saudi are pretty good when you can afford a $200 Million <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-yachts-2011-6#al-salamah-200m-8">YACHT</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTX52sJgMn7GHn7dL4w2ov0t_Al_rCfvxyLf8zAD1WGD76eqaFzpXJqPk9r3v4XTlrBN7p4-WEaKk25x6jRjGHaia-IvtE6Zuwtl-5C3nj8772bmDhTp1kRAP51MrcwBU9tunaZf6UXSUa/s1600/article-0-0925BA7A000005DC-485_306x519.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTX52sJgMn7GHn7dL4w2ov0t_Al_rCfvxyLf8zAD1WGD76eqaFzpXJqPk9r3v4XTlrBN7p4-WEaKk25x6jRjGHaia-IvtE6Zuwtl-5C3nj8772bmDhTp1kRAP51MrcwBU9tunaZf6UXSUa/s200/article-0-0925BA7A000005DC-485_306x519.jpg" width="117" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Oligarch Abramovitch, described in a London Court this week by his former associate as a 'Gangster' spends <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/romans-empire-where-abramovich-spends-his-billions-830582.html">obscene wealth obscenely</a>. On one boat alone he has spent a rumoured $1 Billion. The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/abramovich-eclipse-yacht_n_544396.html">YACHT</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kuok">Robert Kuok</a>. A Malaysian businessman, 88, spent almost $5 Billion on a boat that is Gold Plated. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-kuok-malaysia-billionaire-buys-yacht-photos-2011-7">The Gold Plated YACHT</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud owns 3 palaces, a $500 million yacht, and a private Boeing 747 with an Airbus A380 on the way.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the US, just <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/10/michael-moore/michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/">400 people have more wealth</a> than half of all America combined. Add the resources owned by the top 1% wealthy in the world - and the figure will be approximately the same as that shared by the remaining 99%.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Even if the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/world/europe/for-russia-president-vladimir-putin-report-says-perks-are-piling-up.html?_r=0">wealth of Putin</a> is not the trillion dollars rumored, he is undoubtedly wealthy to an extraordinary level<span style="font-size: small;"> and those who c<span style="font-size: small;">riticize his wealth<span style="font-size: small;">y ways seem to end up badly.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Do the 1% super rich warrant their wealth? Is their wealth commensurate with their endeavor? Does this wealth in any way reflect a contribution that has made the world a better place?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The saying '<i>it takes money to make money</i>' suggests that as these uber fortunes accumulate, the flow of money toward their gravitational pull can only mean one thing. The rich will continue to get richer while the poor will get poorer. Never before has the contrast between the two been so evident. It seems that the 99% exist solely to provide the services required by the Super rich 1%, who own 99% of everything, from the Government, to the Mosques, to the land and to the skies. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The most likely scenario in respect of change in the distribution of wealth - is that ten years from now the numbers will read 99.2% own the same as .8%.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Unless. </span></span><br />
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Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-25319561605130131312011-09-28T11:35:00.004+01:002011-11-26T10:47:07.998+00:00Greek Embassy performance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2R4691wOy3ElFwhxB09VBvG-GrdC2ypQ3ICOghxfUBWwx92NnXcSe6EcGKyowXFWJZG_PSBJc-LRJIERXx5WO4Ow23NU_D5_ZOwc3XnvxuJWTjGzlSwYsTTxYhFlbJZLT44ea30K2SBRi/s1600/Picture+2%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2R4691wOy3ElFwhxB09VBvG-GrdC2ypQ3ICOghxfUBWwx92NnXcSe6EcGKyowXFWJZG_PSBJc-LRJIERXx5WO4Ow23NU_D5_ZOwc3XnvxuJWTjGzlSwYsTTxYhFlbJZLT44ea30K2SBRi/s320/Picture+2%25282%2529.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Appointments manager page on Embassy web site. Note the Passport booking option is NOT AVAILABLE.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Every 5 years for the past 25 years I renew my Greek passport at the embassy in Holland Park. The performance of the civil servants tasked with running the embassy provides an interesting and accurate insight into the workings of Greece's Government.<br />
Last time, 5 years ago in 2006, performance reached an all time low. Let me run you through the experience.<br />
With passport photos and supporting documents at the ready - drive to Holland Park and park in the £4 per hour parking. Then stand in queue for three hours until you get to the counter. Civil servant then looks at your passport photos and says '<i>These are wrong. You need to have them done according to this document. Come back when you have done it.'</i><br />
That is visit number 1 done. Cost in parking and petrol £25.<br />
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<b>Visit number 2</b> - three days later with new passport pics.<br />
Drive to Holland Park and park in the £4 per hour parking. Then stand in queue for three hours until you get to the counter. Civil servant then looks at your documents and says <i>"The pistopitiko requirements have changed. You need to go back to your home village of registration and have them issue a new original document.'</i><br />
My home village of registration is Adamas in Milos. Several thousand miles away.<br />
That is visit number 2 done. Cost in parking and petrol £25.<br />
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<b>Visit number 3</b> - ten days later with new pistopitiko acquired through the generous efforts of my Uncle in Athens. <br />
Drive to Holland Park and park in the £4 per hour parking. Then stand in queue for three hours until you get to the counter. Civil servant then looks at your documents and says '.........<br />
<br />
OK - let me speed this process up.....<br />
<br />
Visit number 3 led to visit number 4. Visit number 4 led to visit number 5. Visit number 5 led to visit number 6. Visit number 6 led to visit number 7. Visit number 7 led to visit number 8. <i>By now two Months have passed.</i><br />
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Visit number 8 led to visit number 9. Visit number 9 led to visit number 10. At visit number 10 an old man in front of me, said <i>'This is my 5th visit here. Why are you doing this to me. I am 80 years old. You should be ashamed of yourselves.'</i> I was quite hopeful then that this would be my last visit. I was so close to the new passport I could almost taste it. But no. Visit number 10 led to visit number 11. After visit number 11, I almost wished I would not conclude the process at visit number 12. I had by now become institutionalized by the process.<br />
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Four Months had passed and without my participation in this all consuming theatre of living surrealism, I felt any prospect of a return to normal life would leave me somehow diminished. Fortunately, visit 12 turned up another requirement, although the official did say to me '<i>I think we have everything now. So when we call you next, it will be to collect your passport.' </i><br />
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And so, on to <b>visit 13</b>. Some 5 Months after visit one, I parked up in Holland Park and stood in the three hour queue for what I hoped would be the last time. While there I did the maths. Average of 25 pounds per visit in parking alone for 13 visits totals £325. Petrol from Hampton Court to Holland Park - say £10 per visit. Another £130. Average five hours of my time per visit for thirteen visits plus stressful worry time along the way is of course an immeasurable quantity. But all these thoughts paled in that moment when, after keeping me waiting in a chair outside an office for an hour and five minutes, I was called in to sign a document and take away my new passport.<br />
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When I got home I wrote an e mail to my uncle in Greece, the one who helped me with the paperwork and who lives in Athens, in which I said '<i><b>No Government represented by this level of inefficiency and gross incompetence can hope to survive the economic consequences of such horrific wastefulness. This is beaurocracy out of all control and out of all reason. The idea that this system can survive is ridiculous. It is only a matter of time until it all comes tumbling down."</b></i><br />
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Five years have passed and I am now back at the Greek Embassy position for passport renewal.<br />
Things have changed - in many ways.<br />
The passport renewal process is now 'by appointment only'. How thrilled was I to see this on the website? Very. Off I went to the form to make my appointment. There is no other way of making an appointment than by the 'Appointment manager' software on the Embassy site. 'Click on the date you ant for the appointment it said. Off I went to the page. But wait. There is no option available. <i>'There must be some mistake'</i> I thought to myself.<br />
Sadly not. No mistake. The Greek Embassy in London - whose job it is to issue Greek Passports renewed in London has NO available option for providing this service.<br />
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I e-mailed the embassy with this astonishing news and the reply read '.... <span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">please visit our website www.greekembassy.org.uk </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: navy;"> to arrange your appointment and to check the required documents. In case that you can not see on our website available appointments, this is because all the appointment until the end of January are booked. However , there are many cancellations( when one happens , the option becomes bold and below you can see the date and time slot,) , so we believe that soon you will be able to find an availability.'</span></span></span></span><br />
<div style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">And so - every day I log on - fill out the form and check. Nothing to see here. </span></span></span></div><div style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Sigh.</span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I will report back with progress - but I fear, like Greece's prospects for sensible Governance, I may be gone for some time. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></span> </div>.............<br />
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UPDATE: 27 November, 2011. No further news from the Greek embassy.</div>Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-4485823818107365362011-08-25T16:02:00.005+01:002012-10-19T09:12:24.743+01:00Virgin Media reply<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>August 22, 2011.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-UupwYLGrc6r3xabf-QVBe4sWZHAztwUmWgVCjgS4x7zGSsCXBkYxKf7uaJ3Rq-e67Z9a8-GW8SrjO4EQklmNKy4nc1WsO8Qy5QoL57RIgYRkushqfhRUnyB5SwsTp0HlYjeNj87XER4W/s1600/01184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-UupwYLGrc6r3xabf-QVBe4sWZHAztwUmWgVCjgS4x7zGSsCXBkYxKf7uaJ3Rq-e67Z9a8-GW8SrjO4EQklmNKy4nc1WsO8Qy5QoL57RIgYRkushqfhRUnyB5SwsTp0HlYjeNj87XER4W/s320/01184.jpg" width="134" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">A reply from Virgin Media to my letter of 6 June 2011, in which I detail their criminal fraud. (See previous blog <a href="http://riverbanker.blogspot.com/2011/06/virgin-media-fraud.html">Post 1</a>. And<a href="http://riverbanker.blogspot.com/2011/07/virgin-media-criminal-fraud.html"> Post 2</a>.) In the interim I have received approximately 33 phone calls, often at socially awkward hours, three extremely threatening letters from 'Moorcroft Debt Collection' who intimated their debt collection agents would soon be around to seize property and sell it off unless I paid them - £170.80, as well as three separate <i>'Please come back to Virgin Media'</i> sales packs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The legal advice I acted on in this time was <i><b>"Do nothing. This is what Virgin Media do. They will huff and puff for a few Months. Simply ignore the threats, avoid their phone calls, and eventually they will issue an apology and close the file. You can then take a view on whether or not to pursue damages."</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The facts of this matter are simple. <i><b>Virgin Media are no better than a criminal gang, using threats of violence, because that's what the promise of breaking into my home illegally constitutes, to extort money which they are not owed, which is called Fraud.</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">As you will see in the letter received today, once they see their threats have failed to serve their intended purpose, they change tack, and withdraw, with the immortal line <i><b>'I'm sorry for the misunderstanding regarding the cancellation of your service and for any inconvenience caused.'</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><a href="http://www.andrewbrel.com/images/virginreply.jpg">Virgin Media reply, 22 August. </a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In conclusion - my experience of <b>Virgin Media </b>confirms they operate a fraudulent practice willingly relying on criminal extortion.</span></div>
Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2111441234132400558.post-67473986895848767452011-06-06T10:49:00.013+01:002011-06-06T11:57:44.284+01:00Virgin Media. Fraud.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i><b>My letter to Virgin Media. </b></i><br />
<i><b>Worst service provider I have ever had dealings with.</b></i><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Virgin Media.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Ann Curran</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Head of Contact Management</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Virgin Media payments.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">6 June, 2011.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><style>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">I am writing with regard to your bill, £140.19 for charges up to 6 July, as well as your letter of 30 May from Anne Curran, demanding £72.17 as it relates to Section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006, "Fraud by abuse of position."</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The facts in this matter are:</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Some Months ago I received a letter from Virgin Media accusing me of ‘Detrimental use of broadband.’ Upon review I noted in a call to Virgin Media that I was away for lengthy periods of time during this period where this limitation to the unlimited Broadband package I paid for apparently occurred. I felt the heavy-handed correspondence from Virgin media was of an unacceptably low standard. As a result I started using a new Service provider, keeping my Virgin media account solely for the E Mail addresses which were widely used in my business. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Despite the fact that I barely used the Virgin Media unlimited broadband service – I received a second letter once more accusing me of ‘Detrimental use of broadband’ which demanded that I call Virgin Media to provide assurances of submission to the Virgin Media code of ethics for the still unqualified offence presented as ‘Detrimental Use of Broadband.’ No indication of what this offence might entail was offered. I was at this point disturbed by the threatening approach to customer service and resolved to terminate my use of Virgin Media’s products with permanent effect. Writing to a customer demanding they call in to provide assurances on limiting the product sold as unlimited or else face being disconnected without further notice is to my mind unacceptable business conduct.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On Thursday 5<sup>th</sup> May 2011, at 11am I phoned Virgin Media to cancel my subscription. I was advised of the 30-day notice period and assured the service would remain active until 4<sup>th</sup> June. This would enable me to effect changes to a new e-mail address for the various areas, such as Internet Banking, Share trading accounts, PayPal and Amazon accounts as well as the commercial scripts which run sales for my business – all of which return to my e-mail account, which was controlled by Virgin Media. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">At 4 PM on the 5<sup>th</sup> of May - my e-mail ceased working. I called the operator to be told ‘<i>I see they have put a hold on your account’</i>. I requested that ‘<i>they’</i> call me to explain. The operator told me <i>‘They will not do that.</i>’ I would like to be very clear on this point. Virgin Media suspended my e-mail account on the 5<sup>th</sup> of May, despite being told that the extent of how I rely on this for my business. When I called in to enquire – I was told by the operator – who accessed my file before she spoke to me – thereby confirming that the matter of this disconnection in on your files – that despite my protestation that this was shocking business practice and that someone from Virgin should call me to explain – she said <i>‘They will not do that.</i>’ I asked the Virgin Media representative if I could quote her on that and she said <i>‘You can do what you like.’ </i> </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On Friday 6<sup>th</sup> May with no Internet service available to me from Virgin Media with my broadband account quite obviously suspended two things became clear: Firstly I was paying for a service that I was not receiving and secondly, that I would now have to incur costs to adjust my business accounts which rely on my e mail address.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I consulted with a Telecoms experienced lawyer following which I cancelled the direct debit payment at 11.30 AM on Friday the 6<sup>th</sup>.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On Saturday 14<sup>th</sup> May, the Virgin media phone line, which was a part of the package with the broadband was disconnected. By this time I had still not received so much as a courtesy call from Virgin media explaining why they suspended my service although I did receive bulky correspondence inviting me to ‘Come back to Virgin media.’ Demonstrating the lack of cross-departmental cohesion that is as offensive to the customer as it is an indication of ineffectual business practise. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">8.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On 30<sup>th</sup> May I received a letter from Anne Curren chasing payment of £72, which followed an invoice for £140.19. These amounts are for services that were not provided. I understand the correct legal term for the attempt to charge for a service you have no intention of providing is attempted fraud. Virgin Media knew the service was not being provided – having themselves terminated the service on 4<sup>th</sup> May 2011, yet Virgin media sent a bill charging £140.19 for the period to 06 July 2011.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">9.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">My costs in physically contacting and effecting change of e-mail address for my business arising from the termination of my e mail account on the urgent basis required by the disconnection exceed £500. The stress of dealing with this harassment style bullying incompetence that is the face of a company who cut-off the service of a very long standing premium customer and then reply to the request to be called by someone responsible with the words ‘<i>They wont do that’</i> should have a compensatory value. My legal costs in establishing my position in this matter, is a further consideration. The fraudulent attempt to extort further payment for services offered after the termination of the service provided may be no more than an administrative oversight in your view, in mine however it has the serious consequence of requiring additional time commitment in the form of taking legal advice and authoring this time intensive correspondence.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">10.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I dispute your charges, as detailed above, as they relate to services that were never provided and that you never had any intention of providing. The act of presenting these charges is attempted fraud.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">11.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I look forward to your proposals for recompensing me for:</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">11.1. The costs of transferring, under conditions of urgency, my e mail account information on the 4<sup>th</sup> of May from approximately 17 key business links all of which required time intensive correspondence with verification and explanation in a process occupying most of my time for two full days. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">11.2. Compensation for being exposed to the schoolyard bullying style incompetence that characterised my correspondence with Virgin media and the ‘Detrimental use of Broadband’ issue leading to the termination of my account without as much as a phone call, but with a surfeit of threat and malign implication. The cost in addressing the fraudulent claims for charges for services you had no intention of providing.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">11.3. The cost of my legal advice, including how best to deal with the daily harassment via telephone of your company’s calls to my private number. There has been a call and message left on my phone every single day this week demanding payment including on the weekend.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">As a premium rate customer of the Broadband service in this area, from the very outset with Nynex who laid the original cable over 20 years ago, then with Pipex who bought them out, then with NTL who bought out Pipex and then most recently with Virgin Media. Over 20 years as a premium rate customer of the broadband service provided to this location and until now, over a 20-year period, without any complaint. In the past year the Virgin Media service has declined noticeably. There were periods when I was unable to even download a basic e-mail in less than 3 minutes, despite your advertised reassurances of ‘lightning fast’ broadband. I repeatedly ran tests on broadband download speed-reading to confirm that over 50% of the time using your broadband service, the download rate was under 100K. Yet I was being charged and paying for your top of the range broadband product. Curiously despite the hugely varying download speeds and the inconvenience the slow download periods imposed, at no time did the cost of the service I was paying for reflect the fact that I was not receiving what was being advertised. “<i>Happy to take the money for the goods but nowhere to be seen when the goods went bad”</i> is a fair assessment of this aspect in my dealings with Virgin Media. The decline in the service provided has been matched by the decline in professional standards. I can’t think of any company I have dealt with in the past that has caused me as much stress and disgruntlement as Virgin Media.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">That you have the temerity to try and send me an invoice after cutting off my service is entirely consistent with the standards I have come to expect from Virgin Media. As a former customer the experience will in my case be remembered for the only good thing arising from the business relationship, which is the story I look forward to telling. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I look forward to your reply to the points raised above.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Andrew Brel.</span></div></div>Andrew Brelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11793637240770518303noreply@blogger.com6