Nocebo of grisly graphics on cigarette packs (again!)

My last two posts (and some before) have been about the criminality of putting grotesque plain packaging images into the minds of smokers (and non smokers) repeatedly so that they burrow their way into our consciousnesses to become exactly the thing we see.

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” Buddha

We know about this in Modern Medicine

Nocebo

It's a pity that statistics on smokers are so twisted and a lot of them are "estimates" aka guessing. It would be interesting to know is cancer rates in smokers had risen since the introduction of criminal images on cigarette packs.  Cancer in non smokers too - those who have to see them. And those who are caught in the deadly waves of second hand smoke found in parks and open spaces. But we'll never know

But I'm not the only one who is appalled by the thoughtlessness of Tobacco Control tactics.

Placebo/Nocebo and the anti-smoking campaign

Is the nocebo effect killing our smokers?

Basically bullshit because smoking does not always kill

Yesterday I wrote The Gruesome Graphic

I woke up in the night wondering what "fifteen cigarettes" meant. Fifteen a day? Fifteen in a life?

"The ads will tell smokers that just 15 cigarettes can cause a mutation that leads to cancerous tumours in what marks a return to shock campaigning."

The video actually says WILL - WILL cause mutations.

 "People will see a man smoking and then a cancer growing out of the cigarette. That is what happens in people's bodies."

No wonder such an ad can be so easily dismissed from the sensible mind  - "More than a third of smokers still believe the health risks from smoking are greatly exaggerated, recent statistics from the Department of Health showed"

And no wonder - this is basically bullshit.  15 a day? for 20 years? for 30 years? for 50 years? Or simply 15 cigarettes?

In the BBC interview it was scientists who could tell this 15 cigarettes (15 a day? for 20 years? for 30 years? for 50 years? Or simply 15 cigarettes?) causing mutations by what they saw in a petrie dish.

 "People will see a man smoking and then a cancer growing out of the cigarette. That is what happens in people's bodies."

This is not what happens in people's bodies. It's what happens in the ad.

In people's bodies it is far more complex, they are not petrie dishes. At least half or more of all smokers can hit old age totally fit and well. Why is that?

Trouble is, we don't know why. And that's the reason that shock ads like the tumour growing cigarette seem like lies.They are simply not true - and can never be until we know why smoking doesn't always kill.

The Gruesome Graphic

This seems to be a time of the gruesome graphic. Once we had censorship which ruled what was acceptable and what not. Censorship was a government function to protect citizens from truly repulsive/upsetting images and movies.

Now it's all changed around. It's a government function to impose on all its citizens gruesome graphics especially selected for their gruesomeness to actively repulse and horrify.

Eight years ago the fatty advert " left an indelible imprint on many smokers' memories, so that every time they pick up a cigarette, they think of our advert and remember the damage that cigarette can do to their arteries."

 I have been banging on about the fact that this is a criminal action. Gruesome graphics are subliminal messages. self fulfilling prophecies and someone wealthy should sue the perpetrators of this.
 
For 2013 smokers minds will be mind-fucked by a tumour growing cigarette.
 

The Extreme Scream

Being Christmas, I have been watching TV programs I normally wouldn't. I wonder why winners have to resort to extreme screaming when they win something? Is it the same reason I suggested in my post The Audible Orgasm? As voyeur participants now on TV and videos that we watch, extreme chimp-like screaming is a way to indicate to the audience that the winners are happy?

Sad really. 

The Audible Orgasm

I have been wondering about the history of the audible orgasm. I have pondered for a long time, on how folks in crowded houses, in hovels or hostelries of yore managed to put up with all the  "Oooooh's 'n Ahhhh's Oooooh's and  Ahhhh's" loudly yelled during female orgasm. Maybe women were once quieter?

I have decided that this current audible orgasm practise must be a dramatic recent addition to sex - an artifact of the modern age, possibly from the porn/movie/video industry. How do you actually show, when you act sex out, that anything is happening as a woman? Well, you yell and shriek. It becomes a modern human behaviour by mimic, easy to fake.

Perhaps I am wrong because "hysterical paroxysm" was the term used in Victorian times for raucous orgasm. Freud studied it "scientifically" so it could be said by our learned elite that something like that existed. Did they not know that women orgasmed? Did they do it silently, or not at all?  "Hysterical paroxysm" was not the norm.

Women have orgasmed for 100 000 years and more. Did they all make such a dreadful din? Or have we had to invent the audible orgasm because we, as voyeurs, need to be reassured that something real is happening?

30 a day and oodles of booze

My daughter just left after popping in with her two year old after a visit to the midwife. She tells me her iron is low with a knock on that her blood pressure is low too. She is pregnant again with her second baby. I know what this is like - we've been there before. No wine. No cheese. No this. No that. I can't remember it all now, but I know it just made me feel totally irritated.

So, at the door as she left, this little scene  unfolded.

Mother: "Get some liver, you like liver - that's good for anemia (iron deficiency). Eat liver"
Daughter: " Not allowed to eat liver."
Mother: "Why?"
Daughter: "Too much vitamin A."
Mother:  "Oh."

Now this same daughter has a Spanish friend who is also pregnant who's mother makes sure she eats liver once a week and has a glass of wine every night.  And she does. I wonder what difference we will find between the two babies when they are born.

This same daughter is physically perfect - facial structure, teeth, hair and is Mensa with a massive IQ , academic skills and qualifications and a clever artist.

I looked at her standing in my doorway and just felt powerless at the extent new mothers are brainwashed by all the "scientific" codswallop they have to endure as if being pregnant is a medical illness and the fact she said "I'm not ALLOWED"

I gave her a hug and told her "Well I didn't do too badly with you on 30 cigarettes a day and half a bottle of cane spirits (like Vodka) with coca-cola every night. And I ate anything I wanted."

But I've told her that before......

Grotesque rogues gallery pictures on cigarette packages need scientific support, otherwise they are simply unproved anecdotes - aka - lies.

 I have just read:-The Story of Brian aged 34

I listened to Journalist Sue Landry speaks with Nick McCallum too.  (Find the broadcast under the pictures of Brian) This is not science - this is anecdote! I will not believe this is true until Brian's medical files are released to the public. Until then, I will take this as an unproved anecdote touted as true by a lying Tobacco Control.

Brian looks as if he is a chemotherapy victim to me.

My father-in-law died of lung cancer at the same time someone else I know's father-in-law died of lung cancer. We compared notes. Neither father's-in-law were treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. They were old men. They did NOT look like Brian! In fact it was hard to really see anything much about their illness on the outside. My father-in-law had never been to a doctor. He chain smoked all his life and drank like a fish. He could be totally charming or absolutely evil. He suddenly developed a sore chest and was taken to hospital. He only then stopped smoking (and drinking). He died within a week. He was still flirting with the nurses and asking for more jelly the day before he died, silly old bugger. My friends father-in-law's death was about as undramatic too.

I would like the medical notes on each patient in the grotesque rogues gallery on the packaging of cigarettes - now to be 75% of each packet according to the EU proposed legislation (making plain packaging really unnecessary) - to be published on the Internet so that we can see them. Otherwise, every one of their self fulfilling subliminal and criminal pictures are unscientific anecdotes and probably lies.

Citizen Control

We already endure the "sculpture" of society through the Media, and Government. No wonder there are so many conspiracy theories suspicious of a reality that is faked, slanted, twisted, manipulated and corrupt - because faked, slanted, twisted, manipulated and corrupt is true. How to tell what is true and to what extent and what is not is a problem for those that think.

I wanted to see what was trending on Twitter Worldwide and I discovered my offered Tweets from others on Twitter had been "tailored" for me. What a cheek! Why should I always want to see Tweets "tailored" for ME? I want to see the new and fresh stuff, not marinate myself in something similer to me! So the tweets "tailored" for me are not the true reflection of tweeting on twitter. They are a lie made just for me!

I follow Blogs by people who are of like mind. It is very easy to feel our kind of mind is the ONLY way to think. That same effect happens to everyone in society who is bolstered in their thinking by others of like mind. The trick is to get away from the like-minded sometimes and think with a different brain. Thinking "To whom is this thought beneficial?. Who is it bolstering? Should I believe this as true? " is a good way of sorting out the chaff from the seeds - even the chaff in my own thoughts.

I believe a lot of things just because I WANT them to be true, because I don't like what I see in the weird world around me. I believe that gradually, more and more people will become aware of the dross, the manipulation, the consumerism, the fake and the lies that form our society. I have to believe that, otherwise I have no hope for the future. I believe this major "enlightenment" could start to happen before I die.

Maybe I'm kidding myself? 

What has happened to the MONEY between the time they knew they were in the shit to the time when the shit hit the fan?

In the UK, Comet. an electrical retailer, is being PAID BY US to go insolvent - the Government is legally obliged to step in and pay redundancy payments.

That's us - our money - our earnings that are skimmed off from us in every way conceivably possible.

Trouble is that when you read the Comet "story" something smells about it - no actually it STINKS! There should be some kind of investigation as to how they can't pay their OWN workers' redundancies. And they can't pay their owed tax either. At what point should they have morally closed down? What has happened to the MONEY between the time they knew they were in the shit to the time when the shit hit the fan?

Caution in trashing the 21st December 2012

I see a lot of chatter on the Internet from Scientists trashing the Mayan Calender end of an Era predictions as codswallop, bullshit and other scornful labels. They are as stupid as those who believe there will be an ACTUAL ending of the world in some horrific way. They are stupid and thoughtless in trashing culture and tradition over which they have little understanding and which is not theirs. And which is an IDEA rather than a THING.

Wiki 2012 Phenomenon

"Unlike the 260-day tzolk'in still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20: 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals (360 days) made a tun, 20 tuns made a k'atun, and 20 k'atuns (144,000 days or roughly 394 years) made up a b'ak'tun. Thus, the Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 b'ak'tuns, 3 k'atuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days" (the end of one cycle of many, and the beginning of a new one)

This is a wonderful idea - we could take advantage of it, instead of trashing it.

 "There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012", said Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone."

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle"

So I hope that we will be beginning a new world cycle and hopefully, one day, we can celebrate getting to the end of THAT one too!

Roll on 21,12,2012 - we need a new chance to improve things....


Before I could hit the Publish button I found this excellent good read article published in the Guardian.

Last nights testosterviolenceporn

Oh God - "The Expendables"! with The Expendables 2 now avaliable

And you can get the video games too!

Negative reviews of The Expendables (number one)  -"sadistic mess of a movie" and "the brain-dead male equivalent of Sex and the City 2"

This is exactly the mindless testosterrevengeporn that I hate in movies nowadays.

Speechless really.

This is entertainment in our modern "advanced" pointless civilisation?

At least the girl really was beautiful, feminine, shapely and not a he-girl. Thank God for small mercies - and thank God the movie is now over!

My husband enjoyed it  - he didn't go to sleep in his chair like he does most nights. There must be something wrong with him.

I always feel uncomfortable with over-the-top testosterviolenceporn, no matter how lighthearted it is supposed to be, in case someone out there (like young, impressionable school shooters) think it's real life. Maybe some people get confused? Then there is also thetestosterviolenceporn practised by our Governments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Georgia, Libya, Syria, Israel and Palestine which IS real life. 


Very strange deformed species we are. The ugly part of Nature.

Wow! The Swing Commanders - feeling good!

When I was a younger woman, I made a tape with all my favourite music numbers on it. It's in our attic somewhere, and if I played it now, it might sound distorted and horrible and disappoint me. But our children remember that tape.

We went to a bit of a do last night in our village. The band was absolutely outstanding. The first six numbers they played were ALL on my tape! They did especially good Manhattan Transfer, Glen Miller stuff and Swing. Some of our kids were with us, they were tickled pink at my delight! It takes a lot to delight me nowadays. The Swing Commanders not only played REAL MUSIC from the Forties with harmonies, melody and meaning, they did it with such happiness. They did it without any laser decor, flashing lights, pounding sound system, and they used real SKILL.

I can't find any of their  Manhattan Transfer, Glen Miller stuff and the Swing we heard on the Internet - only - disappointingly - country and western and barn-dance stuff. But they did it and it was GOOD. For me, that was them at their best. 


They made my night - I'll feel better for days!

 

Interesting site - A Theory of Civilisation

I recently read that Iatrogenic deaths (old statistics predicting foreward) were now the leading cause of death in the USA. I can't find the link to the new statistics, but the above example gives an idea.

And this article from the same website is interesting. 

But while perusing the website on which this information stands, I found fascinating stuff!

If, like me you feel you are living in a strange land, this man does too and he has written it all down over years and years!

A Theory Of Civilization

There is loads of delicious thought-meat here - just what I like!

Maybe you will too?

No birds or bees for sex education then?

Two ideas in this post

1.
I thought State and Church were separate entities?

"The Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned in law from offering same-sex marriages, but other religious organisations will be able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies."

I think "banning"  the Church of England and Church in Wales in doing anything is a bit rich whilst other religious organisations will be able to "opt in" or presumably "opt out".

Is this WEIRD? What am I missing?

2.
Is this even weirder?

 "On a separate point, Baroness Warsi asked Mrs Miller what consideration had been given to the teaching of equal marriage in schools, after concerns were raised about the impact of same-sex marriage on sex education."

Wonder what a lesson in THAT would be like? Confusing?

I suppose birds and bees aren't on any sex education syllabus anymore. 

I'm not complaining - just observing how we are progressing on this alien planet.

How the Lemmings are made

If you have the time, do watch this video - very long - very thought provoking...take a few days if you are strapped for time. If you are a non-lemming, you will massively enjoy it.

If you are a Lemming - WATCH!

If you are wondering what is so strange about this alien feeling planet (like me) this is the explanation. It is about how propaganda works to control us and an explanation of how Lemmings are made!


The Century of the Self

Cocking up the Lemmings

There is something strange with humans on this planet. They follow recieved wisdom without any thought about it themselves.

Perhaps we've been programmed by evolution to simply follow a leader without thought like a bunch of the proverbial lemmings that we used to believe threw themselves off the edge of cliffs, so  plunging into the sea.  Before we were told "scientifically" that lemmings did not do this, it was a symbol of supreme stupidity.

Well, humans display the exact same stupidity. They just follow the "leaders" thoughtlessly.

It's the non-lemmings that actually make change happen in the world. The non-lemmings THINK. They make their own wisdom. They ask questions that the lemmings find tedious because it stops their mindless running. Mindless running is satisfactory, safe and the runners think they are achieving - working towards progress whilst they are just following the latest current trend/leader/opinion.

Non-lemmings are called names by lemmings. They are derided and scoffed at. But you just need to convert a lot of lemmings to become non-lemmings - to think before they follow -  to change direction, and you have a whole new group cocking up the dash for the cliff.  This is every non-lemmings' duty to society.

If you read to the end of this post, you are probably a non-lemming like me.  You are asking questions like "Where has the war on drugs got us?" "Why are there no death certificates for "died by second hand smoke"" Why does no press release show that death by medical treatment is the biggest cause of avoidable death in the west?" "Why is the West still interfering in autonomous legal countries and not minding our own business?" "Is the UK a democracy?" "Are Governments just meddling mechanisms for Corporations?" "How big is big pharma?" "How trustworthy are scientists and science under pressure for funding and fame?"  "Do reptilians really run our planet?"

It really doesn't matter what challenges we make. Lets carry on cocking up lemming runs. It's our duty as non-lemmings. We don't ALL have to fall over the cliff.

Mega meddling with a mega being

I feel distressed when I see our assault on planet earth. But of course, our modern culture needs to do this for its own survival. We are like ravenous animals that simply consume, consume and consume. These terrible wounds on a living creature will heal as all living systems do for themselves.

But some injuries might never heal - we cannot see what we are doing underground. We do some mega meddling thinking we are clever.  So far, we have managed to cope with the repercussions.

It fascinates me that we are focused on climate change and how we might be affecting that - we tax, have the Kyoto Protocol, and the greedy catch a ride on it too - good money making in climate change!

Where is the Protocol to limit the unseen damage we are doing deep underground, the doubts about fracking, deep mining and other attacks on our planet? Is there any attempt to control our rapaciousness?

We rely on the earth so completely for our survival, I don't know what the solution could be. We cannot go back - what does forward look like?

I think as our technology develops we will be able to do what we will consider wondrous things forgetting we are dealing with a living creature with whom we need to co-operate.

An Abuse post - Pranks as abuse

I have always been repulsed by the idea of playing a prank on someone else. They can be the cruelest things and the prankster takes upon himself, the role of bully. It doesn't matter how trivial the prank is - a farting cushion or a "surprise" party. Any idea of something fun (to you) but disconcerting to another is abuse.

I can't imagine why it is deemed to be funny to watch another person discomforted in any way. Pranks are abuse. Pranks are ABUSE of someone else.

Why this should appear amusing, clever, or funny eludes me... "One man’s airborne proposal took his girlfriend’s breath away when he pretended that their small plane was in trouble and asked her to read an emergency checklist that contained instructions for a “ring engagement procedure.”

People who set up pranks like this should be arrested on assault charges. "After the person steps onto the elevator, men dressed as death-care workers board afterward with a casket, which they place upright in the corner. Then they leave to fetch a funeral wreath, but the elevator door closes before they can get back in time.

 

First the victims of the prank deal with the unsettling thought that they are sharing the ride with a dead body. Then comes tapping from within the coffin just before it opens and a body falls forward, hanging limply." etc etc

This is funny? To whom is it funny? At whose cost is it funny?

Pranks can go horribly wrong as we know. This prank is one with the most tragic consequences.

Duchess of Cambridge hoax call nurse found dead

Its a horrible start to a pregnancy for any new Mum, and an unimaginable

 shock for the nurse's family and co-workers.

I hope it pulls all pranksters up short - pranks are really not funny. They are simply abuse of another human being. What a pity some folk enjoy this kind of abuse, doing it and watching it, quite unaware that they are committing an emotional/physical harm to someone else for a cheap laugh.

Climate Change - Mugs either way

For far too long I have felt "Somethings not quite right" in all the hoo-ha that surrounds the Climate Change issue. It's a money/tax scam more likely.  Greed usually rules and what a wonderful way to make a profit. I think there are loads of people who feel the same way I do.

Only time will reveal what is currently as clear as mud. And by then we might regret we are such mugs - either way!

.

Another Abuse blog - "withholding" as abuse and old people

I just came back from teaching someone who, at the end of the sesson shared that her daughter hadn't spoken to her since last Christmas. “Why?” I asked. “Because she and her husband came to visit over last Christmas and I told their dogs to get off my couch. They didn't like that.”

I meet quite a few old people in my work,who have fallen out with their children over all kinds of trivial things. My client who told the dogs to get off her couch is eighty and a new widow. I felt sorry for her. She was so distressed her eyes filled with tears.

I think anybody has a right to tell anyone else’s dogs to get off their couch – and anyone who allows their dogs on other people's couches is in the wrong. The problem here is that she is the MOTHER. Mothers are expected to let their grown up kids do what they like when they come “home”. So she erred fatally by speaking her mind.

She is also the MOTHER-IN-LAW and in effect, criticised her son-in-law by telling the dogs off.  They are a childless couple. The dogs are their children.

So, when you are a young mother, or the mother of teenagers, you are able to set your parameters and discipline your offspring when your slob children give no help in the house, or jump up and down on your lounge chairs. You are a central point. But when they grow up, if you retain your right to speak your mind, in your own home – or god help you – in your grown up children's homes, you are instantly punished.

An old parent becomes a toothless, powerless, old person, completely at the mercy of abuse by their own children.

Not speaking to your mother because she told your dogs to get off her couch at Christmas, is called “withholding” - a very potent form of abuse – and one listed in my abuse blogs.

At eighty, old parents become less confident, more timid, more untouched by any human hand, less central, and, like all of us – require loving. The love that is most important to them, is the love of their own children.

I don't know who the silly daughter is – shame on her. If she were mine, I'd give her a good talking to! I wouldn't get cowed so easily. But then, I'm not eighty – yet!

.

Are we nuts?

There are lots of things I don't understand so I ask the question - why do we (the UK government) have to be a gracious patron to the rest of the world?

This kind of thing makes me wonder quote "Britain has promised a total of £2.9bn. .... our share of the long-term goal of $100bn by 2020," said Davey. "Between now and 2015 our climate finance commitments (to Africa) will continue" We have already paid out a packet. Aren't WE the ones short of money?

Not to mention the cost of EU Membership see here
and here Can we AFFORD this?

And there are all sorts of other outgoings to other countries. We are so gracious!

Why it makes me confused is because no one in government seems to understand plain budgeting that us ordinary folk understand. If you spend more than comes in - you are in the dwang. If you BORROW to buy something and your incomings won't be able to pay it back you are in deep dwang! If you are hemorrhaging money out of your own physical system, you need to stop the flow surely? You can't give your money away if you need it yourself.

To me it seems very peculiar to  graciously fund other countries and dish out oodles of money you haven't got to the rest of the world at the expense of your citizens, or otherwise increasing the "public" debt by borrowing it to give it away.

Any person in the street, working with incomings and outgoings is wiser than Government. Perhaps they should be running the money? To me, the money policy of our Government just seems nuts.

Talking shit

Way back in the 60's and 70's people with a new vision were living in communes where sewerage was used as a source of power. The dream was to be completely self sufficient.

Why is it we cannot get off the ground with using sewerage to produce power/gas for our own use?

In 2009 Davyhulme in Manchester was the new exciting project. Well, I don'tv really know much about it, but has it ever got off the ground? I see it was still going to be an exciting project in 2012 too. 

What has happened to The Davyhulme project? Well, it's probably going to become more expensive than how we get our gas now.

That's the way of things in this modern world, innit?  Going green is more expensive than staying black and puts us in the red!

But maybe I'm talking shit?  These guys are going to try it too.

Avoid dying at all costs

This is a really strange place - this planet - especially the UK part of it.

We are living in a fairytale of illusion even though we are supposedly "scientific" now. 

We believe all sorts of stuff that simply isn't true. We do this, because we are not told the truth. We are lied to by ommission or twististics by lobby groups aka charitable industries, the government, politicians, medical studies, other nitwits who believe everything they are told.

So I would like to point out some facts that industrious truth seekers can confirm.

England is bankrupt - only it is not called that.

No one knows what to do about it.

We do not live in a democracy but a corporatocracy.

No one knows how to loosen its grip.

The more hman rights we press for, the less free we become.

No one knows how to rectify that.

We have too many regulations overlapping other regulations - a legal entanglement.

No one knows which laws to scrap n case the whole thing unravels.

No laboratory has managed to cause cancer in animals by making them smoke.

We don't know why.

Most people are controlled by the sins of greed and avarice.

Religions condemn it, Athiest don't talk about it.

There are too many people in the world/country.

No one knows how to solve the problem.

Everyone thinks growth is good - economic and otherwise.

Continual growth is an impossible state that few speak about.

Our biggest fear is  of death.

No one knows what to do about that, except to avoid dying at all costs, even to the cost of happiness.

Some things were REALLY WORSE then.

Yesterday I wrote about what seemed REALLY BETTER then, when I was young, because it felt like a kind of freedom unknown today. Then, society had less people, simpler technology, and a more rigid system of right and wrong. Now I want to remember what was really worse.

Falling pregnant was considered a terrible shame. Young girls were sent away and unmarried mothers had their babies removed in the cruelest manner.

Being unhappily married was a prison many couples lived in with no recourse to freeing themselves from it. The children grew up in unhealthy surroundings of non-love.

Mothers were not expected to work, were paid less than men, did more menial work and were expected to know their place was really in the home.

Women wore hats, gloves, suspender belts and stockings. Most garments needed ironing and grubby children, caused ire at the extra work their grubbyness caused for mothers with no washing machines, well, perhaps twin tubs if they were reasonably off. Otherwise, washboards over the bath would clean stuff and leave you with red, chapped hands. 

There were no detergents. Cleaning was hard work - elbow grease did it. Kids had chores to do to help. For the ladies beer was used to set hair - or sugar water. Lemon juice rinse or vinegar gave a shine. There was no conditioner, so girls screamed in agony as our mothers forced the knots out of our long hair. There were no manufactured shampoos, face creams or cleansers. Women used cold cream, lanolin and soap and water.

Sundays when no one worked, many people went to church - kids were packed off to Sunday School to keep them out of mischief. Some kids hated that. But you could get them more enthusiastic with milk and cookies after.

There were no calculators. Math was done by mental discipline. Everyone had to learn their times tables. Children failed classes and were held back to repeat it. This could sometimes be more destructive than helpful.

School projects had to be researched in libraries out of books with Dewey classifications. There were no copy machines except Gestetners whose copy sheets had to be typed up on an old, slow heavy typewriters on wax paper. We could make home-made jelly in a baking tray which would copy primitive illustrations from carbon paper. Duplicating stuff was laborious and sometimes impossible.

Cars were uncomfortable and basic for ordinary people - if they owned one at all. Only rich people had luxurious cars.

Air travel in small  twin engined planes was only for the rich and took forever to get anywhere. Less affluent folk could sail steerage class on ships if they wanted to travel, and some freighters would take a few passengers cheaply.


We were frightened of Polio - epidemics that spread through countries. Many were left crippled or died from it. This was at a time when Drug Companies as massive industry were just starting to infiltrate the medical system and  Governments. They began to push their wares on Doctors who, at that time, had a much smaller repertoire of cures. Many diseases were incurable. Doctors did not tell you if the one you had, was. But they might let your family know who could collaborate, leaving the sick person in ignorance.

Conversely, the Big Tobacco corporations were advertising their products so that smoking became normal and entrenched in society. Most everyone smoked, it relaxed you, stimulated you and even looked sexy. All the stars smoked. Doctors smoked. They could even advise a patient to smoke for their "nerves". This was setting the scene for Big Parma to later take over their profits.

Abortion was illegal and many women died from botched abortions, or were left sterile. And unwanted pregnancies happened because there was no efficient birth control except condoms that were hidden in pharmacies and embarrassing to ask for. Unmarried women falling pregnant were so shamed they would do anything to avoid the scandal

There was deep hypocrisy in the fact that sex was not discussed in polite circles. Children grew up having to learn from experience or from myth and legend!

Children were expected to be seen and not heard, to be very polite to grownups and not question the actions of adults. They mostly wore clothes and school uniforms inherited from their siblings.

Most ordinary people's houses had no central heating - houses were cold. Some houses had no bathrooms and loos were outside. Loo paper was horrible scratchy stuff - Jeyes - like greaseproof paper for bottoms.

People had to repair stuff if it broke and darn clothes, socks and turn collars - most people were less well off than they are today. Newly married couples accepted furniture and furnishings from members of their families. Most families lived on the same continents

We must be a really strong bunch to survive all that - and we are still going! And it was US that caused improvements in society - the battling baby boomers - protesting, challenging, arguing and promoting our vision of a better world.

That was before scientific "statistics", government "nannying" or the "blame" culture. 

Some things were REALLY BETTER then.

This is why today feels like an alien planet to oldies like me. I have added to the ideas in this email currently going the rounds...

There are two aspects to this. How it was when we were kids and how it was when we became Parents. Then, life didn't change very rapidly, so much of what applied to me as a kid, also applied to my children. Some things were REALLY BETTER then. My next post will be on some things that were REALLY WORSE then.

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. We smoked and/or drank while we carried our own children. The modern horrors of doing so didn't seem apparent in any way.

We took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can. We ate for two when we were pregnant. And we just ate well at other times and didn't get tested for diabetes, breast cancer or cervical cancer. It didn't seem common. Not too many people were fat.

After that trauma of childbirth we recuperated in hospital so we could cope when we got home. We drove home proudly carrying our new babies in our arms in the front passenger seat. Our baby cots when we were in them were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints, but we were aware it was not good for our own babies. Our babies slept on their stomachs or propped on their sides so they wouldn't choke on their own vomit.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. We rode in the back of pickups - it was the best fun.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Babies sat in baby seats that simply hung over the back of the seat. There were no headrests.We weren't strapped into car seats or booster seats.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We did not have plastic bottles. Liquids came in glass bottles that we recycled for extra pocket money by returning them to the shop.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Nandos. There was no convenience food in the shops. Restaurants were what rich people went to. Everything we ate was made by our Mums or, as Mums ourselves, we made everything from scratch.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death! We had to stock up for the weekend, or really stock up before Christmas, New Year or Easter  - or Bank Holiday weekends. Chicken was really special and we had it roast on Sundays. Sundays were a special day. Mushrooms only grew in fields not in sheds.


You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time. We made our own Christmas decorations and Christmas trees were real. Rich people could afford to buy Christmas Decorations.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We swapped Measles, Mumps, Chicken Pox and Whooping Cough. Everyone got these illnesses. You got to stay off school!

Boys would collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Sweet Cigarettes, Gob stoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. Little kids played "doctors and nurses" to learn stuff like their parents did. 

We also ate biscuits, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing. We had midnight snacks of condensed milk and sardines if our friends stayed over. Girls didn't know much about sex and the boys were equally ignorant. If we kissed we worried we might fall pregnant. Being really bold was to have a puff on someone's Dad's stolen cigarette.

On weekends we would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. To phone home we had to use the Telephone Booth. With a hairpin in the workings, we could get free calls.

Boys would spend hours building go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out they forgot the brakes. Girls and boys built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY, no video/dvd  films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms. Seeing a live picture of someone talking to you from far away was science fiction - unimaginable.

Boys were given air guns and catapults for their 10th birthdays. They rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Girls did not play Rugby or Cricket or Soccer. Rugby and Cricket had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that. Getting into the team was based on merit. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes or throw things at us. By the time we had children, they were still doing that - mostly. But now they added weird activities like standing with your nose on the  wall during break, to avoid the growing criticism of physical abuse.

A punishment for swearing was having your mouth washed out with soap. If you were really bad, you got spanked.  If we were really really bad - there were "the police". The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Neighbours and strangers pulled us up if we were found misbehaving. We belonged to a neighbourhood. It felt safe.


Only girls had pierced ears or wore earrings and jewellery. They wore girly clothes and curled their hair. When we were girls, most Mums didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet. Divorce was unconventional.Our parents didn't invent strange names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla.

No one went to "Psychologists" or "Psychiatrists" - you just got on with things if life was horrid. 

We must be a really strong bunch to survive all that - and we are still going!

That was before scientific "statistics", government "nannying" or the "blame" culture.

 Of course some things were REALLY WORSE then. But more about that later...

Getting drunk whatever the price

When I first arrived in England about 15 years ago now, I remember being utterly shocked by the lack of remorse, regret or shame of the young girls where I worked when they found themselves, after a night out, in bed with an unknown man, or forgot how they got home, or what they had done. They seemed to think getting absolutely "bladdered" was simply amusing. Getting drunk was the objective and pleasure of their outings. In fact they boasted about it.

I am an expert on drinking, being a 'recovered' alcoholic and my behaviour under the influence of alcohol was what made me stop drinking. I was ashamed of my behaviour - the loss of memory, the inability to walk, vomiting, hangovers, belligerence and loss of all elegance. Yet these are the things called "fun" by the girls of England  - a very strange situation.  I have nothing against alcohol. But it can be very dangerous stuff. To my mind it has caused more suffering and harm than any cigarette. My smoking friends that gave up because of anti-smoking pressure, say they drink more now. In the UK drinking is portrayed in telly programs as desirable and necessary form of solution/celebration.  Added to that sex has been reduced to the idea of mere copulation and violence, swearing and foul language is served up in huge dollops in the cinema and on TV here.

So if you think foul mouthed, aggressive, sexually abandoned drunkenness is "fun"  - that's what you'll do for "fun" in a materialistic, artificial, superficial, hopeless and helpless society.

There is something very wrong with the soul of the UK - deep in the psyche of its citizens. It is an illness that putting up the price of alcohol is not going to "cure".

It's US that's decaying!

I love the scientific method but Scientists scare me! Sometimes I have wondered whether some scientists and countries should have been charged with crimes against humanity!

Watch this - this is simply science in insanity mode - Nuclear Detonation Timeline "1945-1998", the 2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998.

2053? Two Thousand and fifty three! What more more did scientists, in such ignorance and “in the name of science” need to know? 

God knows what it has done to the life on Earth – everything must be full of something decaying. When you observe the rising rates of cancer, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, MS, allergies, asthma, and all the “new” plagues blamed on “the ageing population”, lifestyle, second hand smoke, diet etc. – is it US that's decaying?

Excellent weapon for invading forces - piped baby

At lunchtime, our electrical internet connection was working, but our electric lights weren't. We were all trying to work out how that could possibly be. Simultaneously the grandchild-baby was yelling for her food at deafeningly high volume.

What the Army should know, is that high volume baby yelling comepletely stops all logical thought in adults and starts them squabbling.

In battles, piped baby-yelling at very high volume, should suitably confuse the enemy.

Peeking through keyholes

A weakness in Science

In 2010 it was known that There were 1,740,330 species on Earth.  In 2011 it was made known that there are 8.7 million species on Earth. That's science! Yesterday we knew something - but today that something is wrong and we need to understand a new something that cancels out what we thought we knew. Not knowing what we know is unsettling.

In truth thinking people will know that the number of species on Earth are not 8.7 million - but something other. And maybe many species are going extinct. Scientific knowledge is always known today and different tomorrow.

And yet we allow science to guide us with almost religious faith.

Technology that doesn't challenge what we do or how we think is easy to accept.

But the constant stream of silly medical science that gets dished up by the Media is a problem whether it's about coffee and heart attacks, wine and breast cancer, the danger of third hand smoke or that an hour's TV shortens your life by 22 minutes. TWENTY TWO MINUTES - not 20, or 40 - 22 exactly! Most people are exposed to that kind of science - no wonder it simply becomes a laugh.


Science has now become so vast in all it's disciplines, scientists themselves have too much information.  Are we confident about knowing anything much at all? Every scientist is peeking through a keyhole in the door of his own discipline and has little idea of another keyhole in another field exposing a different view.

When ignorance was bliss and the bowel cancer epidemic

Once, when I was a kid, illness was something people got because it just happened - caused by bad luck, God, fate. Now just about everything we get is caused by ourselves - it's SUCH a burden to peace of mind.

In  2009 the latest cancer causing agent was ham and processed meats.

"It is only in recent years that the link between processed meats and bowel cancer in adults has been made, with some estimates suggesting that thousands of cases could be prevented if everyone limited intake to 70g a week – the equivalent to three rashers of bacon."

In 2010 
 
A type of bacterium known to cause dental decay and skin ulcers may also be linked to bowel cancer, scientists suspect.

2012

Bowel cancer patients who take daily aspirin could cut their chance of dying from the disease by about a third, experts believe.

 This is just an anecdote really - a scientific anecdote made by invisible scientists in whom we are supposed to have faith! Aspirin was supposed to be good for something else too - was it strokes? I know the doctor took my husband off aspirin and it makes me bleed under my skin - not good. I think Pharma are feeling the drop in sales and need to promote it for something else!

I wonder if detergents that we wash our dishes with doesn't cause bowel cancer. When I was young, we washed dishes in chopped up Sunlight Soap in a "swizzle" cloth. It never seemed to cut the grease and we always rinsed the dishes in clean water. I remember when dish washing detergents came out in the shops. We thought it was a miracle!

Has there been any scientific study of this? But then, what do I know? I'm only guessing like everyone else!

Scientific gobbledegook on lust and probably everything else too!

 I once heard a lecturer challenged about the neuroimaging results of people being shown sexy pictures in a vast, rowdy MRI machine, lying on their backs, trapped in a claustrophobic tunnel, whose brains "lit up" in certain areas whilst experiencing "lust". The lecturer, in a public lecture, then showed his audience the area of the brain that controls "lust". Well - the challenge from the audience was - that must be scientific mumbo jumbo surely? What the images showed were the bits in a human brain that lit up whilst being  shown sexy pictures in a vast, rowdy, uncomfortable MRI machine, lying on one's back, trapped in a claustrophobic situation.

What our brains do during normal conditions of love or lust must be like an enormous fireworks display - science cannot tell us what happens in the brain under proper  normal circumstances - they've never seen it.

Its scientific gobbledegook really.

Quote:-

"Then there are the limitations of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology that produces the pretty pictures. The scans don't directly tap into the brain, as one might imagine from the hype, they merely detect the increases in blood flow needed to deliver additional oxygen to busy neurons. But neuronal activity lasts milliseconds, Tallis points out, while detected changes in blood flow lag by at least two and as many as ten seconds. Furthermore, many millions of neurons have to be activated for this change in blood flow to be detected. So what we see in brain scans is what is happening in one particular area, some time after the activity has commenced.

Small groups of neurons whose activity elicits little change in blood flow, or a modest network of neurons linking large regions, or neurons acting more efficiently than others, may be of great importance but would be under-represented in the scan or not represented at all. In short, pretty well everything relevant to a given response at a given time might be invisible on an fMRI scan."

 From a review of the book :Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity, by Raymond Tallis

Beyond One Commandment - Mystical "knowing"

 My last post The One Commandment was my thought about the Secularist idea that we should have one commandment that could cover our behaviour in all circumstances. Lots of Secularists are Atheists. Often they are charged with not having a moral framework for humans. The One Commandment could be it. I find many Atheists are very aware of what is morally right or wrong. they have been freed from having to follow religious rules stipulating what is right or wrong. How do they "know" what is right or wrong? The One Commandment is so close to Jesus's teaching, I wonder if it was inspired by Jesus, or did the person who suggested it, have an inner knowing? Did it spring from an inspirational place - or plain "logical thinking" so admired by Atheists?

I am not an Atheist. I am not Religious. But I believe we have an aspect - an inner place, where "knowing" arises. Atheists I know have a problem with this.


I think mystical is not about that which we do not know - I think it is about the delight and surprise that we feel when apprehended by sudden understanding - of knowing right is right, or an expanding of the heart, or an intimate moment with nature or a person. I am very sorry it is contained in the Atheist's 'not allowed' list. I think it shows a very superficial idea of mystical. Many people have mystical experiences, peak experiences, indescribable feelings which mysteriously come upon them, or are gripped by 'oneness'. This has got nothing to do with believing in god - but only about accepting the depth, richness and beauty of the human experience occurring in a vast body of the Universe .

Here's a really important point in talking about the mystical element of being alive. It's from Sam Harris "On Faith"

Quote
"So, apart from just commending these phenomena to your attention, I’d like to point out that, as atheists, our neglect of this area of human experience puts us at a rhetorical disadvantage. Because millions of people have had these experiences, and many millions more have had glimmers of them, and we, as atheists, ignore such phenomena, almost in principle, because of their religious associations—and yet these experiences often constitute the most important and transformative moments in a person’s life. Not recognizing that such experiences are possible or important can make us appear less wise even than our craziest religious opponents".
The problem with Atheism

The One Commandment

Secularists are attempting to make an all encompassing Commandment. I noticed someone suggesting “Treat other people how you would like to be treated yourself" which is a neat rip-off from Jesus "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you”. This would cover every situation a human ever had to confront but leaves out the God part. So I thought I'd have a look see what the Ten Commandments actually said. To my surprise, I find I actually approve of some of them - (if I leave out the Patriarchal God bit, the graven images and a few other things.) (I think this is from the Catholic Catechism)

1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.” 

Dunno about Egypt and the bondage, sounds a bit threatening to me yet mystics and spiritual people affirm that there is only one “God”, nothing else and we are it.

2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.”

Sounds scary but if you were Moses, how would you control your tribe? People were behaving badly, believing there was power in the things they had made and worshiping them. Everyone was smoking, drinking, fornicating, drugging and living an unhealthy lifestyle. We have loads of graven images nowadays that we worship. God's Commandment was quite as intimidating as Health Science, Climate Science and other Science is today to ordinary mortals. Quite similar in fact, and equally judgmental, – on smoking, drinking, eating, lifestyle, how things work, the nature of Nature, humans, and our influence on climate that will be affecting future generations. The difference is that God, then, didn't generate revenue for himself on the back of his commandment.

3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

Not sure what this means...so I'll take this Best Answer (below)..sounds good enough to me.

"Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

To use God's name to justify or legitimate an action that is not justified or legitimated by God. For an example making war on another country and claiming it is "God's will". Claiming God said something that he didn't. Using God to place a curse. Using God's name to elevate your own position. These are examples of blasphemy. Saying words such as "Oh my God" is an exclamation not a blasphemy.”

Well, thank God for that.

4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Well from now on I start to approve....Good idea for communities to have a day off to refresh themselves – one day, altogether, all at once – a synchronized holiday - very healing to those of us who feel as if we, ourselves, had laboured for six days in our personal weekly universe. One day a week should be a holiday just like the old days. Everyone could live for one day without shopping. It can be done - I remember!

5 “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

Imagine happy families looking after their old people, even honouring them. At my age I think that's a good idea.

6 “You shall not murder.”

Excellent idea – who could argue this?

7 “You shall not commit adultery.”  

Another good idea – cuts out a lot of relationship complications.

8 “You shall not steal.” 

A very good idea

9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.”

Absolutely necessary.

10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”  

Good ancillary to prevent 6, 7 8, and 9 and should apply to The Government Receivers of Tax Revenues of every country!

One Commandment zipped in Humanist form, is not a bad idea either – “Treat other people how you would like to be treated yourself" AKA "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

Can't get better than that! 

What the hell has happened?

To go back to the problem of smokers in society.

We are undergoing a behaviour eradication putsch – literally – the aim of the Anti Smoking Industry is to make sure the smoking habit of smokers is eradicated – desisted, deaded – made kaput. Its war is against the 2O% to 30% of the population who smoke – in the west. And aimed at the rest of the world too. It's a world-wide onslaught in the name of health for the masses, the ignorant, and those who have fallen into the clutches of the evil Tobacco Giants – fought on our behalf! All kinds of Drug Companies are making an excellent profit on the back of this orchestrated behaviour modification. And politics has jumped on the prohibition wagon too.

Smoking has been a human habit since 5000 BC and more in one form or another...and I know whilst I lived in Africa, the men (and women) smoked without the help of any Tobacco Company – they smoked Dagga which is a weed occurring everywhere and very easy to grow – cannabis in it's natural form without the help of genetic alteration, in existence since 2000 BC. I regularly had to bail our handyman out of prison, because of his “evil” habit – he was a Rastafarian. And the police could never understand my ire.

Smoking world-wide happens in such a variety of customs and in such ingenious ways that the people who practice smoking take it as a perfectly normal thing to do. Different cultures practise different forms of smoking – you could take your pick.. in pipes, rolled tubes, one hits, through water, through inhaling smoke over the burning weed, for ceremonies, for celebrations, for death, for altered states of consciousness – or just for plain pleasure.

The grim determination of the Anti Smoking Industry to turn us away from smoking only really took a grip when they were able to demonise Second Hand Smoke. And they did it through dishonesty. I was sitting in a restaurant, in a smoking area inside, just off the pavement - (when those were allowed) - and a group of happily chatting women, walking up the road alongside exhaust belching buses and lorries, suddenly swung in through the restaurant doors to make their way to a table. Suddenly, the laughter went, and one woman clamped her handkerchief over her nose to protect herself from the fatal smoke issuing from my tiny hand-rolled cigarettelet. The shocking part of it was, I saw real fear in her eyes! FEAR! She believed my smoke was harming her!

And there it is – it's the fear that has been generated into ordinary people by the “scientific” studies that PROVE second hand smoke is fatal to people. Smoking has been proved to cause almost every known disease and second hand smoke has been proved to be even worse because smokers' lungs have made it even more deadly than the smoke smokers inhale. It's even fatal out of doors. Smokers are not in an altered state of consciousness, but perfectly rational people - not dangerous or crazed.

The way in which small bureaucrats have climbed onto the bandwagon of smoker persecution, by making smoking “illegal” in open air places, like station platforms, shows how keen they are to earn brownie points amongst the terrified non-smoking population. God help us now that little important councillors have been given the same powers. How CAN it be dangerous to others to smoke out of doors? I was hoping UK was going to remain one of the clearer thinking countries - but power has been given away to the little bureaucrats.

Introducing the cheeldren! This is turning out a better weapon than SHS. Now children and young people mustn't see anyone smoking! So  tobacco products are hidden behind secret doors in shops. And just to make sure people see traumatising illness porn pictures, they might also be in "plain" packaging in the UK as they are going to be in Australia.  Well – what an exciting naughtiness awaits our cheeeldren when they try out this forbidden fruit for themselves! Like having sex – but not – they know all about sex, it's lost its secret mystery – just copulation really. Innit? So smoking might be better than sex - I'll bet on it! They could collect the most physically violent illness porn pictures and swap with their friends for whole sets.They could take the dare.

This is a really tragic episode in our human history – the attempted eradication of the smoking habit in humans.I think it will be futile.

Yet, it has particularly emotionally injured people of my age – sixty plus – because we grew up when smoking was perfectly normal – most people did it. In my group no one had deformed babies through our smoking in pregnancy, our children suffered no allergies from our smoking in our homes – asthma and allergies were a rare thing that we read about in the paper, everyone seemed well, vital and optimistic for the future – life was exciting - the roaring sixties. And, strangely, those same people are burdening the population because we aint dead! Is that weird or what?

Perhaps, I have an extra rosy memory of that time, the music, the belief that we could change the world for the better, the “pill” and better circumstances for women, for gays, for black people, for everyone – and for health, from the wonderful new antibiotics which could cure almost anything at all. And we envisioned world peace. Wow. What an exciting world!

What the hell has happened?

Feeling the planet is alien? Scientifically yes!

I am thinking that I know why my planet seems so alien and strange to me now I am getting closer to my 70's. And that would apply to everyone – all generations.

“Old” people always complain that the world is “worse” than it used to be. But, believe me, in a lot of ways – it IS! For generations, old people have been known for feeling that. Sometimes, maybe, things are better, but they can't see it – but they can feel a “difference”. And that is true. The planet is actually NOT the same a it used to be when old people were young.

And the reason is this. Every 72 years the planet precesses one degree in its precessional cycle.

So, in the cosmic rhythm of precession the planet is literally not the same as it was when we were born. 
 

“The most startling consequence of this is that the tropics (the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, where the most northerly or southerly vertical rays of the sun strike) are MOVING TOWARD THE EQUATOR. The rate is more than 14 meters per year! Example: the government of Taiwan erected a monument in a park marking the tropic in 1908. The actual tropic is now more than a kilometer south of this location! The arctic circles are likewise traveling toward their respective poles. The temperate zones gain 1550 square kilometers of territory every year.”

More ideas here

The people have spoken - you ARE daft clots!

When you did a poll on whether the people of England wanted elected Police Commissioners we told you without doubt we didn't. But you went ahead anyway. The people have spoken - you deserve what you got - 14% turnout and hundreds of spoiled votes!  I am proud of everyone who refused to vote and those who did, who spoiled their papers. Well done! THAT is democracy in action.

And to the daft clots who wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds of OUR money on an election we didn't want, if you are confused as to why this happened, you are COMPLETE numpties!

What the hell am I doing?

I am having great trouble keeping this blog going. I thought I might delete it. But I see there have been a lot of hits on my Abuse blogs. I think they might be useful. This blog always seems NEGATIVE and I wonder if it is uplifting in any way. The ideas here are a reflection of my cynical side - but also my wise side. 

It must seem I'm a sour old bag who has nothing good to say about anything. Maybe I really AM like that - a lonely old person, isolated from warm, friendly relationships because of her relentless criticisms of the current state of affairs. If my blogs seem bitter, that would be a sad thing. I am not bitter. I love my life. It has got better since I got "old". I don't feel "old" - I feel wise. I love watching all that is going on. We live in interesting times! I am an enthusiastic participant.

I am a very lucky person to have lived in different countries, observed different political systems, and also majored in History. On studying these things, I have made a little theory.

I think there are three types of people in the world.

There are the SYSTEMS BUILDERS. They devise and work towards systems that they believe will make the world a better place.

Then, there are the SYSTEM SUSTAINERS. These people keep the status quo. They quietly support the Systems Builders. They believe the Systems Builders. They agree.

Lastly, there are the SYSTEMS BUSTERS.  These people see the imperfections in systems, they perceive injustices. They work to break apart that which has gone rotten in the systems the System Builders' built.

These people make our history. 

We absolutely need all three kinds of people to make the world go round. 

We rely on each other to build, sustain and destroy.

I am a systems buster and always have been. If I'm not busting a system, I'm not happy!

When I'm griping and moaning on this blog, I'm feeling my best!

Section 5 Listen up!

I am not sure about other countries, but this one, that I live in, must be one of the weirdest. Here we can really make much ado about nothing - or much ado about what should be nothing.  We can derail careers, destroy lives, snare royals,and generally look like blithering  idiots.  Insults are against the law. How can we know if something is an insult? Well - just by the way it makes us FEEL!

It's our human right not to feel insulted.... or "take" offense (note - we do that TO ourselves) so the law protects us.

Feel insulted? What to do? Make a fuss! Tell the media! SUE!

All you have to do is affirm you felt insulted, or that you "took" offense. You can even feel insulted if the insult wasn't actually yours - but you felt insulted or offended FOR someone else.  It's easy!

But here is a really IMPORTANT thing to know - YOU MAY ONLY FEEL INSULTED BY SOMETHING THAT IS LEGAL TO FEEL INSULTED ABOUT.  Read the small print, Be politically correct. In the UK you may not take offense about anything concerning Gay People, Black People, Religion and many other "human rights" issues otherwise it will be turned against you and you might be investigated for being INCORRECT!

The mind boggles.

Fortunately some people are doing something about it. Listen up!

Rowan Atkinson's Speech for Reform Section 5

Lord Dear's Speech

Live-in Carers - ambient abuse part 3

"Ambient abuse is the stealth, subtle,underground currents of maltreatment that sometimes go unnoticed even by the victims themselves, until it is too late. Ambient abuse penetrates and permeates everything – but is difficult to pinpoint and identify. It is ambiguous, atmospheric, diffuse. Hence its insidious and pernicious effects. It is by far the most dangerous kind of abuse there is."

Today, I am discussing the abuse of live-in carers. In the UK, "carer" is just a synonym for "servant" - so to me, the words can be used interchangeably. Carers/servants suffer terrible ambient abuse. These examples are from real life.

If you are a carer you will become aware of abuse when you are designated a  special cupboard in the kitchen in which have been placed chipped cups, mugs and plates and old cutlery for your use. 

You will find an old broken chair in your room. You will be handed old sheets and bedding which needs to be laundered before it is fit to use. The house dog is habitually used to sleeping on the mattress assigned to you. You might get a tiny old hand towel to use for bathing - or a kitchen towel. 

You will feel watched and monitored at every moment. Your room might be surreptitiously searched - or even blatantly so.

It will be resented if you take a phone call. You will be aware of  your employer eavesdropping. They will ask you what your phone call was about even if you received it on your own mobile phone.

Your employer will be rude, short and lack any manners with you. All conversation will stop as you enter the room with the tea tray. And a visitor, or family member, will close the door behind you as you leave the room, at which point, conversation will resume. No one will have thanked you.

You might be accused of stealing food or money, or using the "good" bathroom, or dirtying the carpet with your shoes. The change from your shopping task will be suspiciously checked in case you withheld a cent.

You will work long over the hours considered legal. Time off will be resented and always be inconvenient so you will feel guilty most of the time you are employed.

If you are female, caring for a male, you might have to endure attempts at your door at night and other harassment.

You will have been alienated from any support in any of these things by your agency telling you "you can always leave", "we have plenty more people on our books who are willing to do your job".  Your sense of self esteem will be eternally under attack. Zero status. you will be continuously and profoundly exhausted.

The fact is - that live-in carers are one of the most abused group of workers in the UK. They have virtually no legal support, emotional support, no respite and they are paid a pittance. Their abuse is not just put in place by their employers - but by the whole of our society.



 

Health - ambient abuse part 4

I am continuing my thoughts on ambient abuse as it applies to relationships of all kinds.

Here are some thoughts about the Government Health Care and Health Attitudes that we face in our modern world.

About ambient abuse again....

"Ambient abuse, therefore, is the fostering, propagation, and enhancement of an atmosphere of fear, intimidation, instability, unpredictability and irritation. There are no acts of traceable explicit abuse, nor any manipulative settings of control. Yet, the irksome feeling remains, a disagreeable foreboding, a premonition, a bad omen."

In a way, in my mind, the condition of illness has been altered in the Health Care Systems of the world? (or maybe its just the UK?) to be all about counting costs. It's all about money.  It's about the how much the treatment you get costs and whose fault it is that you are ill. If it's YOUR fault, then we will be marinaded in an atmosphere of disapproval.

Obesity is wrong because obese people cost more to a Health Service than a normal sized person. Obese people generate illnesses that need to be dealt with - "obesity related" extra attention, treatments THAT COST. If you are obese, you will feel guilty, foreboding that someone is going to "pick on you" because you can't stop eating will cloak you. It will be this way, even though the obesity epidemic cannot be explained by "overeating".

There is carping, nagging, social engineering to see that we are "educated" into a "healthy life style" by the media serving the Health Lobbies of a country. Smoking, drinking and eating your way into bad health is not permissible and people who do this are a COST to society. Well, no actually. Smokers, drinkers and eaters have paid every penny of their treatment before they even need medical attention. They have paid all, and more through their taxes.

The constant promotion that you are an expense to to system (State Medical System) and to society is a load of boloney. It's abuse - an atmosphere of fear, intimidation, instability, unpredictability and irritation towards those who misbehave. We are "costly" only because we have become a commodity in a commercial environment (Health)

In the UK, there is a little threat being wafted around like a nasty smell, that smokers, eaters and drinkers will be punished by not getting medical attention until they behave. This is the new Hippocratic oath?  No, it's abuse!


There is no convalescence time offered once you have had your operation or baby. Home is where you need to be - it's cheaper! Convalescence is an old fashioned word now. Its something we can't afford to do anymore - a waste of money, yes?  NOT allowing time for convalescence is foolish and short sighted. Having to re-admit people to hospital that you just discharged is REALLY expensive and has to be an example of the failure of cutting costs.

The strange thing is with ambient abuse is that you can't quite put your finger on the problem. It's just - well - ambient! But you can tell it's there by the way you FEEL. If you feel guilty about going down with flu, or getting sick because you couldn't control your stress, or getting lung cancer even though you never smoked in your life, or eating Camembert cheese at three months pregnant, or scoffing chocolate cake with your coffee, or eating three only of your "five a day" - something ain't right! And it's not you.